


Just Hear This and Then I'll Go

by allwaswell16



Series: Just Hear This [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pride and Prejudice Fusion, Angry Sex, Angst, Book Adaptation, Dear God I love pretentious Harry, Enemies to Lovers, Famous Harry, Famous Louis, Happy Ending, Hate to Love, I can't believe I almost forgot to put smut, I promise, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, It's actually a modern day Pride and Prejudice though, M/M, My beta watched the movie for me though, POV Louis, Pining, Sexual Tension, Smut, but you don't need to know anything about Pride and Prejudice to read it, side Ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:32:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7355521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allwaswell16/pseuds/allwaswell16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Former boy band member Louis Tomlinson can’t stand pompous indie artist Harry Styles, but with a new record label to launch he is going to have to endure his pretensions to snag up and coming new artist Liam Payne, who happens to be Harry’s oldest friend. Luckily, Liam seems to be very interested in 78 Records and maybe a little more than interested in Louis’ best friend. Too bad Harry won’t be making this easy on any of them. </p><p>Or a modern day Pride and Prejudice--Louis is Elizabeth, Harry is Mr. Darcy, Zayn is Jane, and Liam is Mr. Bingley. Oh, and Niall is Mrs. Bennett. Obviously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is complete. I'll just be posting chapters as my beta edits/proofreads with me, so no worries that I won't ever finish it. It's around 45,000 words, so maybe 15 chapters? Update: I marked it out for 14 chapters. 
> 
> taggiecb, thank you for holding my hand and for all your encouragement. I would never have finished writing this or had the courage to post it without you. 
> 
> Thank you to nottoooldforthisship for the lyrics edit for my tumblr post for this fic. I absolutely love it, and I'm honoured you made it and are letting me use it for my fic. Link for both at the end. 
> 
> The title is from the song 'Last Goodbye' by Jeff Buckley.

***

Everyone knows that a talented singer with charisma and an attractive face must be in need of a record contract. Even if no one knows the feelings or views of the singer on his first entering the London music scene, the record labels assume him as the rightful property of one of them.

*** 

Louis opens his eyes. They feel like he’s rubbed them with sandpaper. With a groan he closes them and rolls over and off the bed. As he lays on a rug on the floor of his very posh house, he curses the day he ever laid eyes on Niall Horan. Damn you, Niall, he thinks and even tries to shake his fist, but his arms aren’t quite obeying his commands at the moment. Maybe he’s still a bit drunk.

He experimentally pushes up from the floor onto his elbows. Nope, too soon. His stomach turns. Never mind, just sleep here on the floor for a bit, he thinks, as he lays his head back down on the plush rug he’s fallen on. Convenient. He drifts back off to sleep.

He awakes to an abrupt pounding in his head. Or the pounding is real and at his bedroom door.

“Louis? Lou! I know you’re home! Where are you?”

“Fucking fuck, Zayn. Shut the fuck up,” he moans as he turns over, pressing his face into the rug. “Why am I on the floor?”

“Whatcha doing on the floor, mate?” Zayn has barged in. Louis decides they clearly need to discuss boundaries. Again.

“Fucking sleeping. Or trying to anyway.” He groans as he tries to sit up and fails.

Zayn lets out a chuckle. “Whatever made you think you could keep up with Niall, I’ll never know.”

Was Louis being nudged with a foot? “I will fucking knock you on your arse if you touch me again with your fucking foot,” Louis growls from the floor.

“Mate, I don’t know that you can get off the floor to do much of anything right now. At least not without my help. We’ve got a meeting in a few hours, and I knew you’d probably need me.”

Louis cracks open an eyelid to look up at him. “Ed. Right.  Well, don’t just fucking stand there, Zayn. Help me get off the damn floor.”

Louis is at least sitting up in bed when Zayn returns with his tea. “Ah, Z.  You’re the best, mate.”

“Tea in bed. I’m spoiling you.” Zayn shakes his head with a laugh as he sits at the foot of the bed.

Louis carefully takes a sip. “Nah. I deserve to be taken care of properly. Now, what time are we meeting Ed at the studio?”

“We still have a few hours if you want to eat somewhere before we go. Can’t write on an empty stomach.”

“Yes, I will lose all inspiration without a cheeseburger.”

Zayn gives him a cheeky thumbs up. “That’s the spirit. Now, please go take a shower. You smell like cigarettes and sick.”

“Rude. I smell heavenly at all times. Want a sniff?” Louis dives on top of him and rubs his armpit into Zayn’s face as he pushes Louis off, spluttering.

“Fucking hell, Tommo. Now I need a shower as well. Disgusting.”

“Ah. You love it. Now leave me be unless you’d like to catch a glimpse of me naked arse heading into the shower.”

Zayn heads for the door. “I’ll pass. Seen it enough to last me a lifetime.”

Louis calls out after him.  “I’ll have you know many, many people would like a look. There are even update accounts keeping track of this ass.”

Zayn ducks his head back in the door. “Oh, for fuck’s sake are you serious?”

“I dunno. Just what Lottie’s told me.  There’s an account for me armpits, too.”

Zayn’s mouth hangs open. Louis cackles as he moons him on his way to the shower.

*

They call security on their way to eat. Zayn insists and Louis agrees. They’re still two of the most famous faces in the world, particularly to a certain segment of the population. On their own they could slip by, but together they’re fairly recognizable as half of the most famous boy band on the planet. Well, recently disbanded boy band anyway.

Zayn finishes his burger with a sigh and leans back in his chair, arms crossed in front of him. “So you heard of Liam Payne?”

Louis answers with his mouth full. “Who?”

“Up and comer. Ed knows him. He’s apparently an old friend of Harry Styles—“ Louis immediately tenses. “Hold up before you go all ballistic, Princess. Ed says he’s cool. Definitely not a snob.”

Louis swallows. “I didn’t even say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. You almost rocketed out of your chair at the mere mention of his name.”

“Well, he’s a complete arse. A completely pretentious arse who thinks his music, which is about the same damn thing that my songs are about, are just so much better because he wears his hair too long and prances about like he’s the next Mick Jagger.” Louis jumps up from his chair, arms waving. “And oooh, he plays the guitar. Well, so does Niall! And I play the piano!”

“Mate, calm down. You’re shouting. And okay, people are noticing. Time to go.” Zayn throws some money on the table and hustles him to the door as phones appear and start recording and snapping pictures.

Louis wrenches himself out of Zayn’s grip and looks back directly at one of the phones. “I’m learning guitar as well!”

*

As Louis and Zayn make their way into the studio, they can hear voices carry through the open door. As they arrive at the door, they can hear Niall and Ed.  

“So do ya think you can get us a meeting then? I mean, if this bloke is as good as you say he is…”

“I’ll talk to him, Nialler, but he’s got a show coming up. Playing a few songs. You should all show up and check him out. See if you think he’d be a good fit. Oh, hey Louis. Zayn.”

Niall looks up and eyes Louis with a chuckle. “Lou, you look a bit under the weather, lad.”

“Shut your mouth, Niall.” Louis purses his lips and drops himself into a chair. He turns to Ed. “So I hear you have a prospect for us, Edward. Tell me more about Liam and why he has such terrible taste in friends.”

Ed smiles. “Well, he’s a nice kid with a hellava voice. I really think his voice is well suited for the songs I’ve heard you working on.  He’s planning on staying more permanently in London. Staying with Harry for the moment, I’d reckon. Known Harry since they were kids. I think he’s worth having a look at though, Tommo.”

“Well, I suppose I could drop by if you all are going to be there. Let’s see if the kid is legit. This record label needs more than one artist. Not that we don’t love spending all our time looking at your beautiful face, Ed.”

Niall looks up from his phone. “Why ya all over Twitter sayin’ you’re gonna learn the guitar?”

“Fuck’s sake. It’s already on Twitter? Let me see.” Louis reaches his hand out, and Niall hands over the phone. “Why does it have so many likes already?” Louis grumbles.

Niall claps him on the shoulder. “Mate. Why didn’t ya say so? I’ll teach ya to play!”

Zayn laughs as Louis shoots him a look. “Thanks, Nialler. Might take you up on that.”

This isn’t the last time Louis will trend on Twitter.

*

As Louis walks into the bar, he can already sense it. There’s just a certain buzz in the air that you can feel when the whole room is anticipating something great. Louis hopes it’s because of Liam. He heads to the bar certain that’s where he’ll find his friends. Ah, yes, there they are. They aren’t ones to disappoint. He slides onto a stool next to Zayn.

“I’m not too late for Liam, am I?”

“Nah, but I think he’ll be up there soon.” Zayn nods at the stage currently occupied by an Ed Sheeran wannabe. Someone should tell him there’s only one Ed Sheeran.

The set finishes, and an extremely fit man walks out onto the stage. Brown puppy dog eyes, a stylish buzzed cut, muscular build. Louis and Zayn give each other a raised eyebrow. Niall squeezes in between them. “Well, he’s a good looking bloke, ain’t he? Hope he can sing. Jaysus, pick your jaws up off the floor, mates, and we’ll have a listen.”

Liam has barely uttered a note of an Oasis cover, and he already has Louis sitting up straighter in his chair. “Well, well, well.” He glances over at Zayn, but Zayn’s eyes are focused on Liam.

As Liam starts in on what sounds like an original song, Niall waves his hand in front of Zayn’s face. “I agree, Z. He’s pretty mesmerizing. Some of us are a little more mesmerized than others though.”

Zayn blushes a bit. “Well, he’s bloody good. Incredible voice, really. Ed’s right, Louis. I think his voice really suits what you’ve been working on.”

After a few more songs, Liam’s set is over, and he emerges at the end of the bar. Louis stands up to go introduce himself, but Niall’s already begun making a line for him, dragging Zayn behind him.  As Louis walks up, he cringes as he hears Niall singing their praises.

“Heard all about ya from Ed,” Niall says. He points at Louis. “This one here has been writing some damn fine songs lately, and I’m thinkin’ they might be right for ya. But let me buy you a pint first.”

Liam seems amused by Niall’s enthusiasm, which is a relief. He also seems unable to keep his eyes from Zayn’s face. Interesting.

“Great set.” Liam drags his eyes away at the sound of Louis’ voice.

“Thank you. Was a bit nerve wracking if I’m honest to see such famous faces in the crowd. Especially one who isn’t just a famous singer, but a song writer, too. ‘Fireproof’ is just one of my favorite songs really.”

Louis nods at the compliment. “Thanks. You’re alright yourself. Those weren’t all covers up there.”

Before Liam can reply, Niall is pressing pints into their hands as he raises his in the air. “To Liam here and his music. And to Tommo’s fucking fantastic songs. And to 78 Records. And to Zayn’s pretty face. And to Ireland. And to this lad’s famous curls. Cheers!”

Louis takes a drink. Famous curls? He whirls around to see Harry Styles smirking at him. Great timing to choke on his drink. God damn it. “Ya all right, mate?” Niall pounds on his back a little too hard.

“For fuck’s sake Niall. I’m fine,” Louis chokes out as he sees Harry turn back to the bar to get a drink as Liam turns back to his conversation with Zayn.

Harry takes a sip and then saunters past Louis to tap Liam on the shoulder. It takes a few tries before Liam can tear his eyes away. “Love, we have a few more people you should really meet. Sort of the point of all this, isn’t it?”

“Right. Sorry,” Liam says with a sheepish grin. “Well, ah, hope to talk with you all again soon.  You can give me a ring. I gave Zayn my number. And Ed’s got it, too. I’d love to hear the songs you’ve been working on as well, Louis.” Louis raises his glass in farewell as Harry gives him a long look before he drags Liam away without ever uttering a word to any of them.

Louis glares at Harry’s retreating backside. “Fucking arsehole.”

The night wears on. A girl band makes an interesting appearance. Louis sends Zayn to get contact information. Zayn makes a great recruiter. Easy to talk to, and let’s face it, easy on the eyes as well. He excuses himself from one of Niall’s stories about…golf? UFC? Eh, something to do with Ireland and sports. He isn’t interested unless they’re talking football. He heads towards the loo at the back of the club. As he begins to enter the dark hallway he can hear Liam’s voice, and he stops. He presses his back against the wall out of sight to eavesdrop.

“Thanks for introducing me to so many people, H. Really, I appreciate it. I’m really interested in 78 though. I mean, Louis is one of my favorite songwriters. And Zayn and Niall know a lot about the business, but they also seem like decent guys, you know? Of course, Ed Sheeran trusting them with his new album is huge, too.”

Harry lets out a huge sigh. “Liam. Please think with your head instead of your dick. I get it. Zayn’s beautiful. Don’t let that sway you.”

Louis scrunches up his face even though no one is there to see it. Liam laughs. “Uh, yeah. He is beautiful, but no, I won’t let that sway me. Why don’t we go back over there and chat with them, then? Your contract’s up soon. You ought to be talking to people for yourself. Plus, I saw you ogling Louis Tomlinson’s bum, you know.”

Harry scoffs. “Louis Tomlinson isn’t pretty enough to tempt me. And neither is his record label that has one artist.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Pretty. Like I fucking want to be pretty anyway. Handsome more like. Handsome and rugged. More manly. I play a lot of football,” Louis grumbles as he clicks through some graphics.

 

“Uh, Lou. What are you talking about?”

 

Louis looks up from his desk. Zayn is standing in the doorway to his office. “Ehm. I--nothing. Come on, mate. Stop faffing about, you’re late for the meeting.”

“What? No, you’re late, and I’m coming to get you.”

“Sure, sure. If that’s how you want to see it.” Zayn shoots Louis an annoyed look as they stride into the conference room.

Louis takes his seat and looks around at the group he’s hired to realize his dream, 78 Records. It feels damn good to have his band be a part of this as well, for them to let it become their own dreams for themselves. It all feels pretty amazing until about thirty seconds after he sits down.

“So I hear Harry Styles may be looking for a new label!”

Most of the room groans at Niall as Louis gets up and pretends to exit the room. Luke throws a wadded up paper ball at Niall’s head. “What? I’m just saying. We need more artists!” Niall says as he shields himself.

“Yeah, well let’s find one that ain’t Louis’ nemesis, dickhead.” Zayn shakes his head.

“Now hold it. I’m not the only one who thinks he’s a complete wanker,” Louis says as he heads back to his chair.  “He didn’t just ignore me last night. He ignored all of us. Didn’t speak a word to any of us. He’s a fucking tosser, and his only goal seems to be to fuck every Victoria’s Secret angel. And remember those shite interviews he gave talking out of his ass about us?”

Oli scoffs a bit. “Lou, those interviews were like two years ago. Get over it, mate.”

Louis shoots Oli a withering glare. “Could we please discuss the actually talented man we listened to last night?”

“Aye. Let’s talk Liam. He’s legit, Lou. Talent coming out his—“ Niall motions behind him.

Zayn interrupts. “We get it, Niall. No need to act out talent actually coming out someone’s bum, Jesus. Anyway, I agree Liam seems like an excellent fit for us. Up and coming, extremely talented, handsome, amazing singer, writing his own stuff but open to what Louis has written, handsome—“

 “Did you just say handsome twice?” Louis cackles.  “You fancy Liam!”

“I mean, he’s a nice bloke. I’m just glad he’s so interested in 78 s’all.”

“Not all he’s interested in, I’d say.” Louis wiggles his eyebrows up and down at Zayn. “But to be serious, I agree with you. He’s all that you’ve said. Did anyone else notice how fit he was?”

Zayn pushes his chair back as laughter rings out in the room and stands up. “Okay, fine. You win. But let’s actually set something up and see where he’s at with wanting to sign. I’d guess we aren’t the only label interested after last night. And then add to the fact that he’s clearly got Harry’s support, which don’t exactly do us any favors.” He shoots a look at Louis before heading toward the door.

“Not my fault that guy’s an arrogant twat,” Louis mumbles as Zayn takes his leave.

Niall speaks up as others start to rise from their chairs. “I’ll set something up with Liam, then. Let him know we’re interested in a meeting. Unless you want Zayn to call. Maybe let him know he’s very, very interested.” Niall grins slyly.

“Go ahead and make the call. We don’t even know if Zayn’s really interested in Liam beyond something professional or if it’s at all mutual.”

Niall scoffs. “Who wouldn’t be interested in Zayn’s pretty face?”

Louis pulls a face at the mention of the word “pretty.”

Niall claps his arm around Louis’ shoulder with a laugh as they head out the door. “Aw, mate. You’re pretty as well, okay?”

“I’m pretty as fuck, Niall. Too pretty for that dickhead.”

“Wait. What are we talking about?”

“Never mind.”

*

As Louis sees Liam walk up to their table with Harry and a striking young woman, he admits his stomach flutters a bit. Strange. Nerves, he supposes. He really wants this meeting to go well. He doesn’t want to overwhelm Liam, so he’s only brought Niall and Zayn with him. Ed said he’ll try to stop by as well. It won’t hurt to show off his famous, successful artist.

Everyone exchanges polite greetings. Surprisingly, the woman is introduced as Liam’s cousin, Taylor, not Harry’s latest conquest.  Harry’s greetings, of course, are noticeably cool. Louis tries his best not to roll his eyes. Fine, Harry looks fit in tight blue jeans with a white button up barely buttoned. But come on. Who actually fucking wears their aviators indoors anyway? He glances at Zayn who smirks back. At least he’s not the only one who thinks Harry is ridiculous. He looks back and sees Harry’s sunglasses are now pushing back his hair, and he’s staring intently at Louis as he slides into the chair directly across from him. Louis’ cheeks flush a bit at the noted attention.

A waiter appears, and Louis clears his throat. “Let’s start with a round of pints, if ya’d like.  This place is a bit poshy, but I’m sure we can get some pints over h--.”

Harry interrupts and looks towards the waiter. “Actually, I’d prefer the Yuzu Beautiful.”

“Oh, me as well.” Taylor pipes in. “I really prefer a more sophisticated cocktail.”

How did Louis get stuck at this stodgy as fuck end of the table? He looks longingly at the other end. Liam seems relaxed as he laughs at whatever Zayn is saying. Louis sighs. He guesses as long as Liam is comfortable that’s all that matters, but he can’t suppress the look of horror on his face when Harry’s drink arrives. 

“What the fuck’s in your drink, mate?”

Harry looks up, surprised. “Well, the Yuzu Beautiful has a bit of carrot and goji berries and a touch of cumin with pickles.”

Louis curls his lip. “What are you talking about? Did you just say your drink’s got carrots in it? And coh, why’s it smell like that?”

“Well, the cumin is a bit…”

“Smells something awful, it does.”

Taylor crinkles up her nose and sniffs delicately. “It can be an acquired taste for some with less refined palates, I suppose.”

Louis looks at the drink again, incredulously. “Whatever you say, miss. But it stinks like me armpits after a footie match.”

Harry lets out a loud bark of laughter, which he instantly tries to quell though the smile remains on his face. “I do admit. It’s a little pungent.” He swishes the drink around and keeps eye contact with Louis as he takes a long sip. Louis raises his eyebrows.

Ed finally arrives, and Louis breathes a sigh of relief. Liam seems suitably impressed with what Ed has to say about the label, and Ed always brings the bantering up a level, which Louis is always one to appreciate. Apparently, Harry appreciates it as well as he laughs at nearly everything Louis says. Louis doesn’t think he’s ever even seen Harry smile in his presence before tonight. He reluctantly admits to himself that those famous dimples are pretty brilliant.

*

The following night Zayn and Louis decide to take in a show. Who would say no to a Stevie Nicks concert? Not them.

“Fancy seeing you lot here.” Louis and Zayn approach Liam and Harry as they make their way through the backstage area of the venue.

Liam grins widely. Harry acknowledges them with a sober nod. “Louis. Zayn. Hello. I wouldn’t miss a chance to speak with Stevie. I’ve baked her this cake, you see.”

“You baked Stevie Nicks a cake?” Louis eyes the chocolate monstrosity skeptically.

“Of course. I used to be a baker, you know.”

“Uh, right.” Louis finds it impossible to control his eyes rolling back.

“Do you all know Stevie as well then?” Liam asks. “Stevie Nicks. THE Stevie Nicks! Harry’s promised to introduce me.”

Liam seems to be vibrating with enthusiasm. Louis isn’t sure he’s ever met anyone quite this enthusiastic. It’s almost grating. He glances at Zayn to gauge his reaction. Well, that could only be described as fond. Settles that then. “Liam, I do not as of yet know THE Stevie Nicks. Apparently, I’m quite famous, and they’ve let me back here. Perhaps, Curly here will introduce me as well. Hopefully, before he shows her this hideous cake he’s brought.”

Harry looks outraged. “It isn’t hideous! It’s quite delicious, I’m sure. I’ve perfected this particular recipe. I’ll have you know I used an imported artisan chocolate from Mexico that really adds something special to the heat from the cayenne pepper.”

Louis looks at him in horror. “Are you telling me you’ve ruined this chocolate cake with pepper? You’re going to serve Stevie Nicks a chocolate cake’s got pepper in it?”

“Yes. I mean, no, it isn’t ruined. And yes, I’m going to give it to her,” he sniffs and moves the cake further away from Louis.

“Oh, ho. Don’t worry. Your cake’s safe from me. Won’t be trying to snitch a bite, pinky promise. Did you ruin the frosting as well? Didn’t put that armpit smell into it or summat?”

Harry glares at him. “No. There’s no armpit smell in it.”

Zayn is looking at them incredulously. “Armpit smell?”

“Well you see—“

“It’s hard to explain, but—“

They both stop to let the other go. “Sorry, you go,” Harry says.

Louis raises his hands. “No, go ahead and explain yourself.”

“I don’t need to explain myself.”

“I think you do. Putting armpits and pepper into things they don’t belong in.”

“Well, for one thing it’s called cumin. Not armpits—“

“Hello, boys. Discussing armpits. Very unexpected.” They both whirl around at the sound of THE Stevie Nicks’ voice.

“Stevie! Hello. I’ve baked you this cake for your birthday.”

“Oh, how lovely, Harry. Thank you. That was so thoughtful of you!” Harry beams in response.

“I dunno how lovely you’ll find it once you hear what’s in it.  Hello, I’m Louis. Big fan. Just thought I’d warn you this one’s put pepper in your cake. I know it appears to be a normal, slightly lopsided chocolate cake, but I figure you deserve to know what he’s done to it.”

Harry’s face is red. “Oh for fuck’s sake there’s very little pepper in it!” Harry’s shouted this last bit. He looks like he can hardly believe he’s just shouted in front of Stevie Nicks, but clearly Louis winds him up something awful.

Louis whispers theatrically with a thumb pointed at Harry. “This one don’t take a joke so well, eh? You know he used to be a baker. Your cake has some fancy chocolate in it. Artist chocolate. Something like that. It had to cross an ocean to be in your pepper cake.”

Stevie is clearly amused. “What did you say your name was?”

“Louis Tomlinson. I was in the band One Direction. We’re all big fans. You’re quite an inspiration to us. We’re songwriters as well. Zayn here was also in the band.”

“Oh, yes! Yes, my godson’s daughter is quite the fan actually. I’ve listened to your last album. I quite liked ‘What a Feeling.’ Reminded me of something Lindsay would write.”

“Well, that’s quite a compliment. Thank you. Liam here is a songwriter as well. You’ll be hearing of him quite soon. Hopefully, on my record label.” He offers Liam a wink.

“Lovely to meet you, Liam. Let me offer you some advice. Go with someone who really believes in you and your music. Not someone looking to change you into something you aren’t. Find a good fit. Someone who supports you as a songwriter. It’s so important that you find people who understand what it’s like to be an artist.”

Liam turns to look at Louis like he’s just hung the moon.

*

Liam’s had a few drinks. “So then you wouldn’t believe it! Louis introduced me to THE Stevie Nicks!”

Niall laughs. “We know, mate. You’ve said this like 30 times already.” Most of the employees of 78 Records and Liam’s cousin have met them out after the show.

“Yes, but Niall. THE Stevie Nicks! And…and she gave me advice, Niall! Me! Liam Payne! Advice!”

Harry purses his lips. “Louis doesn’t even know Stevie Nicks.”

Louis grins as he takes a gulp of his drink. “Lighten up, Harold. Here, take my drink. Maybe try to unclench a bit.” Harry screws his face up into a strange nose scrunch.

“What the fuck is that face for? I’m giving you a free drink. Wait. Are you--trying not to smile? Is that what your twitchy nose is about? Or you got to sneeze? I got nothing to wipe your nose with you’ll have to use your sleeve.

“This is Gucci. I’m not wiping my nose on my sleeve.”

“OoooOOoooooh. Guuucccciiii. I’m soooo sorrrrreehhh.” Louis pretends to flip his nonexistent long hair as he starts to sing.  “I’m so fanceh. You already know. I’m in the fast lane. From LA to Tokyo. What the—“

Iggy Azalea starts playing through the club. “Harold! Are you hearing this? I’ve conjured Iggy Azalea’s music! I’m magic! Should be getting my Hogwarts letter any day now!” Harry’s nose is scrunched up again.

“My name isn’t Harold.”

“Oh, Harold. You may as well just smile instead of making that bizarre face at me every time I’m brilliant.”

Harry snorts. “Okay, conjuring Iggy Azalea was pretty brilliant.”

“Magic, I tell ya.” Louis turns and throws an arm around Luke as he drags him out to the dance floor where Zayn and Liam are already dancing.

Harry’s smile turns into a frown as he sips his free drink. He spends the next hour watching Louis weave his magic on the dance floor as Taylor attempts to engage him in conversation. He doesn’t hear a word she says.

*

Louis half drags an intoxicated Liam back up to the bar where Harry is still standing with Taylor. “Well, I’ve brought you your friend back. We’re off to the next club, I think.”

Niall shakes his head. “Sorry, I’m out, Tommo. I have an early session with Ed tomorrow.”

Zayn yawns. “Yeah, I’m knackered to be honest. Been a long one.”

Everyone seems to have one excuse or another. “Can’t believe you losers. Come on! Just one more club!”

Harry clears his throat. “I’ll come with you.”

Louis whips around at the sound of his voice. “Uh, yeah. No, maybe they’re right. Ha ha. Best be going home, I suppose. Busy day. Busy, busy, busy. Busy day tomorrow as well most likely.” Louis is backing away, clutching Zayn’s arm. “See you—some other time. Or later. Liam, we’ll be in touch!” He’s practically marching Zayn towards the door now.

Zayn tries to wrench his arm away. “Ow, you’re hurting me.” He turns to smile and wave at Liam who is smiling and waving back. “I think Harry is looking at your bum, mate. Can’t blame him, I guess. It’s a nice looking bum. What with the update accounts and all. Did I ever tell you I looked at those accounts? Very interesting.”

“Oh my god. Just shut up.”

*

“Well,” Harry drawls. “I suppose we should take Liam home.”

Liam is attempting to climb on the bar to try to catch a last glimpse of Zayn as he exits.

Harry pulls him off the bar, and he and Taylor catch a taxi. They clamber in and push Liam to the middle. Taylor chatters away as Harry watches out the window. He listens sporadically until she mentions Louis. “Well, we all know what you think of Louis Tomlinson anyway. Zayn seems lovely, but why he still associates with Louis, I don’t know. I don’t see why so many people fancy Louis at all. I find his looks merely passable.”

“I’ve quite changed my opinion on that as it happens. I find I’ve been meditating all night on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a handsome man can bestow.”

Taylor shuts up after that.


	3. Chapter 3

Louis is laying on the floor of the studio. Inspiration is not striking at the moment. What a waste of studio time. He’s calculating how much money he is losing when Niall flings the door open and skitters into the room. “Glad I’ve caught ya here. I just got the call!” He dances around in place.

Louis sits up. “Okay, but what are you on about?”

“Zayn! And Liam! Liam and Zayn! Liam’s called to ask Zayn on a date!” Niall claps his hands together.

Jesus, Niall is the absolute worst. “Well, can’t say as I’m surprised. Zayn is basically the best, so yeah. ‘Course he wants to date him.”

“I mean, Zayn keeps saying it’s technically not a date because it’s a dinner party with other people, but it’s sooooo a date! It’s happening! Friday is the night!”

“Well, I hope that means we’re still in the running to sign Liam.”

Niall grins slyly. “I think it could only help us, I’m sure.”

Louis frowns. “We don’t need Zayn’s pretty face to keep this record label going.”

“Sure, we don’t,” Niall says with a condescending smile as he pats Louis on the shoulder.  “I’m off now to go tell Ed the news!”

“Why would—oh never mind. I’m not even going to argue with you.” Louis lays back down on the floor.

*

Louis is in the midst of a very disturbing dream featuring curly hair and dimples, which is rather more disturbing than the frogs raining from the sky. Some type of plague. Very fitting. And loud, annoying ringing. Ah, no that’s his phone.

“ ‘lo.”

No one answers. Unless you count giggling. “Looouuueeeehhhhhhhh. Louis Tomlinson!”

“Christ. Zayn. What the fuck, mate? What time is it?” Louis half sits up in bed.

“Don’t know, Louis. The clocks don’t work here, I don’t think. I think I’m trapped in Harry Styles’ house. Or I am maybe in the loo. S’no clock in here, Louis. Think I’m done being here. Don’t feel good. Want to go home.” Louis hears a distinct hiccup.

“Where is everyone? Can you go back out there and find Liam? Or Harry? See if you can get them on the phone. I’ll give them my address. They can get you a taxi. You can come here.”

“Can’t, Louis. Don’t think I can get off the floor. Think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Okay, you see the toilet don’t you? Can you get to it?”

He can hear the sounds of retching. Lovely. Hopefully, Zayn’s made it to the toilet.

“Louis?” Zayn sounds absolutely miserable.

“Yes, love? Did you make it to the toilet?”

“Yes, but I need you to come get me.”

“Christ. First time I wished I had Harry Styles’ phone number. Zayn, I’m going to get Niall, okay? He doesn’t live too far from Harry. He can get to you sooner. Come to think of it, he’s got Liam’s number. I’ll get Liam’s number and text him and see if someone can’t come help you out the bathroom, okay?”

“ ‘Kay.”

Louis hangs up and rings Niall. “Niall, seems we’ve got a very drunk Zayn situation going on. Think you can go get him from Harry’s? He’s stuck in the loo. I don’t know what those wankers are doing that they haven’t noticed. And can you get me Liam’s number? I’m going to call him and see if he can’t find Zayn and help him out.”

“Hmmmmmm….”

“Niall? What the fuck does hmmmmm mean? Are you looking through your phone for the number? Did you save it as something clever and can’t find it now or—“

“No.”

Louis is getting a sinking feeling about this. “Niall, whatever you’re thinking, please stop.”

“Nope. Sorry. Can’t do it.”

“Okay, well, I can go get him I suppose, but can I have the number so I can—“

“Nah.”

“God damn it, Niall,” Louis says as he flops back on the bed.

“Louis, come on! The plan is perfect! Zayn is now trapped there, and Liam can take care of him! They’ll be forced to spend even more time together, and Liam will surely just fall madly in love with him. I mean, who wouldn’t? Am I right?”

Louis’ head is pounding. Fuck, he’s tired. “Niall, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Zayn is puking in the fucking toilet. No one is falling in love with him at the moment. Please don’t do this.”

“Sorry, but just think of the label then. Liam can just go ahead and fall in love with Zayn and sign with us and really all our problems will be solved!”

“Fuck. You’re not going to give me the number are you?” There’s no answer. Niall’s hung up.

Louis sighs and gets out of bed. He throws on some joggers and whatever t shirt is laying on the floor next to his bed. Guess he’s driving to Primrose Hill in the middle of the night.

*

Louis feels like an absolute idiot as he pulls up to the gated house. Fucking Niall. He’s looked up Harry’s address via the internet. He hopes those gossip sites actually knew which house was his. He goes ahead and rings the buzzer.

A deep voice pours out of the box. “Yes?”

“Ehm. Hi. It’s uh, Louis. Er, Tomlinson. I…well, I’ve come for Zayn? He called and said he’s…uh, poorly.”

“Oh. Louis. Well. Yes, of course.”

The gate clicks.

Louis pushes it open and frowns as he makes his way to the front entrance. He’s tired and doesn’t look up at the door to see Harry is watching him come up the walk. He startles when he gets to the steps and sees Harry peering out into the night.

“Zayn’s asleep.”

Louis nervously arranges the fringe of hair falling across his forehead. “Ah. Well, he rang and seemed not…well. He didn’t seem able to get himself any help, and he was begging me to come. Mind if I come in and check on him? Just want to make sure he’s okay.”

Harry opens the door and gestures him in.

Louis looks at him sheepishly. “Sorry about all this. I’ll just be a sec and then I’ll head into the office.”

Harry furrows his brow. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Righto. That it is. Thank you for the information.”

Harry leads him to a staircase. “Why are you going to work in the middle of the night?”

“I’m just going to crash there the rest of the night. No use driving back to mine right now.”

“Oh. Well, don’t do that.” Harry runs his hand through his hair.  “Please. You can just stay here.”

Louis stiffens. In no world did he expect to spend the night at Harry Styles’ house. He thinks about insisting on leaving, but he’s so fucking tired. He yawns. He just doesn’t have the strength to protest at this point. “Ehm, okay. Thanks.”

Harry opens a door to a bedroom where he checks on a peacefully sleeping Zayn. Wanker. Louis sighs. “He’s fine then. I guess I didn’t need to come. Sorry for this.”

“Don’t be sorry about being a good friend. You clearly just care a lot about him. It’s admirable.” They stop and stare at each other for a moment.

Harry clears his throat. “You can stay across the hall.” He leads him into a lovely guest room. Louis mumbles his thanks and face plants onto the bed already half asleep. He doesn’t notice that it takes Harry a few long moments to shut the door.

*

Louis may be a good friend, but that doesn’t mean when his friends force him into sleepovers at the home of his nemesis that he doesn’t exact revenge. Louis tiptoes into the bedroom where Zayn is still sleeping. He carefully closes the door behind him before taking a diving leap onto the bed. “Oiii oiiiii!” he calls as he lands half on top of Zayn’s prone body.

Zayn thrashes about in the blankets. “Argh! What the bloody hell?”

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Louis beams at him.

Zayn flops back on to the bed. “Why are you even here? What the fuck.”

“Oh, I dunno. I guess because my best friend fucking drunk dialed me in the middle of the night stuck in a loo and begged me to come rescue him. And by the time I got here, no thanks to Niall, my former best friend was fucking fast asleep.”

Zayn grimaces. “Oh. Well, sorry then. I guess.”

“No, no Zayn. Stop with all these apologies. It’s too much. You’re embarrassing us both with all this sincerity.” Zayn covers his head with a pillow.

There’s a knock at the door.

“Yes?” Louis asks. “Come in!”

Harry opens the door and sees a pile of blankets and pillows in a human, presumably Zayn, sized shape as well as Louis laying across the bed on his stomach looking up at him with his chin in his hands. Harry clears his throat. “Good morning. Is everything…okay in here?”

Louis raises his eyebrows. “Of course. Why do you ask?”

“Well, the loud strange noises were…concerning.”

Louis jumps off the bed and walks over to Harry standing in the doorway. Confused, Harry starts to speak, but Louis shakes his head and raises a finger to wait. Louis takes another running leap on top of the Zayn shaped blankets as he shouts out, “Oiiii, oiiiii!”

Zayn again thrashes around in the blankets, cursing. “Was that what you heard then?” Louis asks with a grin.

Harry is crinkling his nose. “Um. Yes. I suppose that’s what I heard.”

“Harold, what did I tell you about that face?”

Harry lets out a loud bark of laughter that startles Louis just as Zayn sits up and gives him the opportunity to push Louis off the bed.

Harry is still smiling. “I’ve made breakfast if either of you are interested. Liam is already eating.”

Zayn perks up. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

“Not me!” Louis calls from the floor. “I’ve got a severe bum injury over here.”

Zayn looks over the edge of the bed. “Mate, you’ve got plenty of extra cushion back there.”

Louis sits up. “Very rude, Zayn. My bum’s got just the right amount of cushion, thank you very much.”

“Well, isn’t that the truth,” Harry offers as he turns and walks back through the door.

Zayn smirks at Louis who is looking in horror at Harry’s back as he walks away. “Did Harry Styles just complement my…well…”

Zayn laughs. “Your finest asset?”

Louis throws a pillow at his head.

*

Zayn and Louis make their way downstairs to breakfast. Harry has a set up in the dining room of an array of fruits and two pitchers of smoothies. Only Liam and Taylor are in the room though.

Louis looks at the sideboard and frowns. “Are we supposed to eat this rabbit food?”  He looks over at Liam who is eating eggs. “Where’d those come from then?”

“Oh, um. I don’t really like smoothies? So Harry made me some eggs.” Liam grins sheepishly as Zayn sits down next to him with a banana.

Louis frowns. “I don’t suppose he’s got any Coco Pops then?”

Liam shakes his head sadly. “Probably not.”

Taylor sips her smoothie. “Coco Pops? Aren’t those a bit juvenile for an adult to be eating? I mean, there’s a cartoon monkey on the box.”

“Yeah, I guess smashed up fruits and vegetables made into baby food that you can suck up through a straw is a lot more mature. And what’s wrong with monkeys? Quite like monkeys meself. Did a video with one once. They’re a load of fun actually.”

“I think Eli was a chimp,” Zayn adds.

“Whatever, Zayn. You’re on my shit list right now, so don’t push it.”

Zayn puts his hands up in surrender.

“So are you saying this breakfast is chimp food?” Harry walks into the room with his phone in his hand. “Sorry, I had to step out for a moment. My sister called.”

“No, I think he called it baby food and rabbit food,” Liam adds helpfully.

Taylor smiles brightly at Harry. “How wonderful of you to take your sister’s calls so quickly!”

“Actually, you’re mistaken. I’ve been told I talk rather slowly.”

Louis laughs. “Harold! You made a joke!”

Taylor frowns at Louis before turning back to Harry. “Please tell Gemma how I can hardly wait to see her!”

“I’ve told her.  You asked me to say that the next time I spoke with her, so I did.”

“Tell her I’ve been so delighted by all her writing, and let her know I’ve just been in raptures with all her blog posts!”

“Well, I’ll try to remember to tell her the next time she calls.”

Louis side eyes both of them. “Why don’t you just text her?”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure I’ll see her very soon,” Taylor shrugs. “I think it’s so charming that you speak with your sister on the phone rather than just text her.”

“I’m not sure how charming she finds my calls, but I’d prefer to talk to her most times than just text.”

Liam looks surprised. “Really? I mainly text everyone.”

Taylor snorts. “Yes, and you leave out half the words or they’re typos.”

“Sometimes my ideas are just flowing so fast that I just don’t say things quite right. And then of course no one knows what I’m talking about,” Liam laughs.

“Finally, a humble man, for once,” Louis says. “Can’t find fault with a man who knows his own.”

Harry smirks. “Not so much. He’s pulling one over on you. He just looks humble when really he’s bragging about how many ideas he has. That his creativity just can’t slow down enough for him to properly type out a text to anyone. And yet if someone asked him to explain he’d stop and explain in twenty long and proper sentences.”

“Eh. All you’ve proved is that Liam is a good chap. And that he’d immediately try to make right what went wrong,” Louis insists.

Liam laughs. “Nice of you to interpret it like that Louis, but I’m sure that’s not at all what he meant. He’d rather I just text back saying, it’s too bad you don’t understand as I don’t have time to waste explaining myself.”

“So Harry, you’d rather Liam be a dick and stubbornly refuse to explain himself to his friends?”

Harry visibly stiffens. “No, I’m saying his friends should be able to figure out what he’s saying, and he shouldn’t bother wasting his time always trying to explain himself.”

“So to give in to a friend without putting up a fight is shit to you?”

“To give in for no reason is.”

“I don’t see why you couldn’t give in just for the reason that someone is your fucking mate. Don’t see what it matters. If my mate asks me for an explanation and it’s easy to give him one, I fucking will. Don’t see why it should be an argument when it’s between friends.”

“I think there’s more to it than that. It depends on how good of friends we’re talking about and the importance of the conversation.”

Liam interrupts. “Well, maybe there should be more details to this. Like how tall a friend is! I always explain myself to Harry because he’s so tall. If he weren’t so tall I wouldn’t bother to ever explain myself to him.”

Louis refrains from laughing at Liam’s joke as he sees Harry’s smile isn’t reaching his eyes. “I see this argument is making you uncomfortable Liam, and you’re trying to get us off track,” Harry says.

“Damn right, I am. Wait until I’m out of the room, and then you can talk about me all you’d like.”

Harry turns to Louis. “Well, why don’t we leave them in here, and I can cook you something else in the kitchen. Then, we can continue our discussion.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s okay really. I’m fine. Zayn and I need to head into the office this morning. I’ll grab something on the way.”

Harry frowns. “Well, at least let me give you something to take.”

Before Louis can say any more, Harry rushes out and returns with tea in portable cups and a paper bag. “I made muffins yesterday, so they should be okay I’m sure. I put a few protein bars in there just in case.”

“Er, thanks. Ehm, thank you.” Louis feels unsure what to do with the unexpected kindness of food to go.  “Well, Zayn should we be off then?”

They say their goodbyes, and Harry shows them out. Harry stands at the door, watching them leave as Taylor walks up to stand beside him, setting a proprietary hand on his arm. Louis turns and offers a quick wave and a somewhat troubled smile.

Taylor tugs at Harry’s arm to draw him back inside as Harry seems to be just staring at his departing guests. “I know you thought his eyes were quite beautiful. Too bad he’s missing a trait that’d be important for you.”

“What’s that?” Harry asks as he shuts the door behind them.

Taylor giggles. “Being female of course!”

Harry smiles broadly. “Eh, not that important.”

Taylor laughs uncertainly, unsure if he’s joking. She decides to treat it as a joke. “Well, if you ask him to be your boyfriend I guess you’ll get a discount on One Direction merch. Just think of all the lunchboxes and sticker books you can get with his face on it! Why you could even get one of his fans to draw you some fan art to hang with all your Ben Turnbull pieces! Or wait, I don’t know if any of them could do justice to his eyes you think are so beautiful.”

Harry smiles. “It’s hard to capture the mischief in his eyes. But they replicate the colour and shape quite well and his quite long eyelashes. Not that I’ve been looking at fan art of Louis or anything.”

Taylor doesn’t answer. Jealous people should think before speaking.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey! My beta and I got through three chapters since last night. I'll post this and chapter five in just a minute. Woo!

“Lou, come on. Please. Just do me this one favor,” Zayn pleads.

“Hmmmm, a favor? You mean like showing up in the dead of night to rescue my former best friend from the home of my worst enemy?”

Zayn sighs. “How long are you going to refer to me as your former best friend?”

“Forever. My new best friend is now Edward Sheeran.”

“Hey thanks mate!” Ed says as he sits down with his guitar. He turns to Zayn. “Mind if me and my new best friend here write a song?”

Zayn stands up. “Fine. But since when is Harry Styles your worst enemy, anyway? Seems a tad dramatic even for you.”

Louis raises an eyebrow and snarls his lip up into a displeased look. “He’s my worst enemy because he is the worst. Why don’t you take Ed here along? He doesn’t hate Harry.” He turns to Ed.  “Come to think of it, if you’re going to be my best friend you’re going to need to swear allegiance to me over that pretentious twat.”

Zayn perks up. “Ed! Yes, you should come along as well! I should have a few people, so he…I mean everyone feels comfortable.”

“Sure, I’m in. But what are you talking about then?”

“Well, I invited Harry and Liam and whoever they want to bring to Cirque tonight. I feel a little bad about how drunk I got the other night at Harry’s, and I kind of wanted to make it up to them.”

Ed smiles. “You’re going to make it up to them with snake charmers and fire eaters, eh?”

A look of panic crosses Zayn’s face. “Oh god. So it’s a bad idea? Where should I have got a table? Is it too late? I could make some calls! Get us in somewhere else!”

“Have you quite finished?” Louis asks.

“Only if you agree to come. Please, Lou. Liam likes you, and Harry likes you even if you hate him. Well, he likes your bum at least.”

“Oh my god. Fine, just please shut up. You do talk some shit. Harry Styles’ only interests are being a prat and dating blonde models.”

“So you’ll come then?”

“Yes, but only because we need Liam to sign with us, not just because you want to marry him and have babies and move to the country.”

Zayn opens his mouth to fire back, but thinks better of it when Louis points to him in warning. He shuts his mouth and quickly leaves the room.

*

Louis sees the exact moment Harry enters the club. Not that he’s looking for Harry or anything. No, he’s anticipating Liam’s arrival is all. He watches as Harry’s eyes scan the crowd, and Liam appears to be chattering away excitedly in his ear with his cousin trailing behind them. Louis glances away before Harry can catch him looking, but he does nudge Zayn to let him know Liam has arrived.

Zayn stands up with a grin ushering them over to their group. Louis knows he looks well tonight. His hair is done up in a quiff, his black jeans look painted onto his body, and his black tee shirt is sheer enough that his tattoos are visible through the fabric. Not that it matters, but Harry appears to be staring at his ankles. Or perhaps his shoes? Louis looks down at his shiny, black shoes. Well, they are rather nice looking, both his sockless ankles and his fancy shoes

“I need a drink,” Harry says abruptly and stalks off to the bar, Taylor tagging along behind him.

Louis rolls his eyes at Harry’s retreat to the bar. He shouldn’t let it bother him that Harry can’t stand to be in their company for more than a minute. He’s also trying not to let it bother him that Harry can’t manage to button a shirt even half way. Show off.

“Who’s a show off?” Luke asks. Louis realizes he said that bit out loud.

“Eh? Oh, just Harry. Who only buttons one out of every six buttons anyway? Big deal. So he works out and probably does hot yoga or whatever. Probably only eats kale salads all day to make his chest look like that.”

Luke wiggles his eyebrows and laughs. “Sure, mate.”

Louis turns his attention back to the table. Liam and Zayn sure look cozy chatting into each other’s ears pressed up against each other just to hear over the noise of the club. Louis smiles. It’s nice to see Zayn this excited about someone. It’s been a long time since he’s seen him this happy. All those years on the road were not conducive to relationships, and Liam sure seems like a great guy albeit one with atrocious choice in friends.

Taylor and Harry return from the bar. It’s obvious to Louis and probably everyone else here how interested Taylor is in Harry. If Harry had hoped to pull tonight, he’d have some trouble convincing any girl he wasn’t with Taylor. It looks as though she’s having trouble keeping Harry’s attention though, when she walks over to Louis.

“Hi, Louis. Care to dance? I’m bored of just standing around.”

Louis is surprised into agreeing. “Uh, sure. I guess.”

They suddenly have Harry’s full attention. Taylor looks back over her shoulder with a sultry smile, “Care to join us, Harry?”

“No. Thank you though. I wouldn’t want to interfere.”

Taylor slips her arm through Louis’ before asking him what Harry could possibly mean by that.

“No idea,” Louis answers. “But I’m sure it’s nothing flattering. Best to disappoint him by not asking.”

Taylor of course ignores this advice. “Harry! Whatever could you mean by that? Explain yourself!”

Harry sips his drink. “Well, one of two things really. Either you have secrets to share, or you’d like your admirers to see you dance. Don’t want to interfere with the first, and I can do the second better from here.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Let’s go, Taylor. Let him watch like a creep from here.”

Taylor sashays away with Louis to dance. Louis refuses to look back to see if Harry’s still watching, but Taylor makes sure to give periodic updates about how Harry can’t take his eyes off of them. After a few songs Louis decides he needs a break from her and declares himself in need of a smoke, but Taylor decides she needs one as well.  They walk back to the table, and Louis grabs his pack and his lighter.

“Going out for a smoke with Taylor. Be back in a minute,” Louis informs the few people standing nearest.

Harry stands up. “I’ll join you both if you don’t mind.”

Louis shrugs and doesn’t answer. Just starts walking toward the exit with Taylor and Harry along behind.

As they stand outside the club, Louis offers one to Harry after lighting Taylor’s cigarette. “No, thank you. I don’t smoke. I just came out for some fresh air.”

“Oh, really?” he says as he blows a breath of smoke into Harry’s face with a cackle.

“Very funny,” Harry frowns.

“So what are your vices then, Curly? An occasional fancy drink and beautiful women?”

“An occasional drink and beautiful women aren’t vices.”

“Ah, got me there, I guess. Didn’t answer me first question though. You’re a bit of a sneaky character, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t have said being sneaky was one of my faults.”

Louis dramatically pretends to faint. “Oh my! Are you admitting you have faults? This can’t be!”

“I’ve never claimed to be faultless. I have many, I’m sure.”

“Oh, but you can apparently think of none of them at the moment. Right.”

A sideways smile crosses Harry’s face. “I can think of a few. I’m probably more stubborn that I ought to be. I’d say I have a hard time excusing other people’s behavior. I guess I’m not one to forgive and forget easily. Once I have a poor opinion of someone I don’t change my mind.”

Louis sees red, assuming Harry means him. “Well. Okay, then. Yep, I’d call that a fault. To hate people you don’t know and refuse to change your opinion once you know them better.”

Harry frowns. “Well, then yours is to misunderstand everything I say.”

Taylor interjects as she doesn’t appreciate not being a part of the conversation. “Well, should we head in? Maybe get a drink? Or dance?”

Louis stubs out his cigarette with his shoe forcefully. “Sure. Let’s go.”

Harry stands in his way of the door. “I didn’t tell you all my faults yet. And since I don’t want to be accused of being sneaky again, I’ll tell you that my record label happens to think my sexual orientation is my biggest flaw, my worst vice.” He turns and walks back towards the door, leaving a very surprised Louis and Taylor gaping after him.

*

There’s a meeting in an hour about Ed’s nearly finished album, so Louis is in an hour early to work on some paperwork. Well, it’s what he meant to do anyway. Instead, he is fidgeting, tapping out different beats on his laptop keyboard, pacing around the room, and at one point leaning back so far in the chair that it tips over.

He can’t stop thinking about Harry. Why would Harry tell him a massive secret like that? Why would he trust Louis of all people? Not that he can’t trust Louis. Not that he even said it was a secret, but it obviously is one. Taylor didn’t know. So it’s definitely a secret even to people he knows well. Fuck.

He hears someone come in the office. He jumps up out of his chair to see if it’s Zayn. It is.

“Thank fuck it’s you,” Louis says from the doorway.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I need to tell you something, and it’s a huge fucking secret.” Okay, he knows it’s a secret, but surely Harry knew he’d tell Zayn. He pushes Zayn into his office and shuts the door. “Harry told me he’s gay.”

“What?”

“Or bi or something. Fuck. He didn’t really say, did he? Just said they thought it was a problem. Okay, Harry is not straight.”

“Oh. Well, he does kinda look at your bum a lot. I mean, I was always joking about it, but like he actually does look at it a lot. But I mean, it’s a nice looking bum, so I figured maybe he just likes bums.”

Louis could slap him. “Zayn, what the actual fuck. Why are we talking about my bum right now?”

“I don’t know,” Zayn shrugs.  “Because your bum turned Harry Styles gay?”

“Fuck’s sake. Can we be serious for a second? Why would he tell me something like this?”

“Can’t say I know why, Lou. It’s possible he—“

Someone starts loudly banging on Zayn’s office door. “Whatcha doin’ in there? Are you two havin’ the meeting without me, then? Open up! I’ve brought a surprise!”

“Jesus, Niall, the door’s not locked,” Zayn calls out.

Niall opens the door. “Oh. Well, the door was closed. We never close doors here. Thought it was locked.” He eyes them suspiciously. “What’s going on? Are you keeping secrets from me?”

“No, I have no secrets about myself from you Nialler. Swear on me honor,” Louis declares.

Niall narrows his eyes and jabs Louis in the chest. “Don’t care ‘bout your honor, Lou. Swear it on the Rovers.”

“Fine, Niall. I swear it on the Rovers.”

“Okay, well then I’ll show you my surprise. James! Get your arse in here!”

James Corden walks in to a round of hugs from his surprised friends. “How are you all? Just had a pint or two with Niall here myself, so I’m feeling pretty good. Glad to be back home for a bit.”

Louis smiles. “I didn’t even know you were coming! How’s the show?”

“It’s going well. It really is. The missus is homesick though. So we’re here for a bit while the show’s on break. Probably spend some time in Cheshire at the house there as well.”

“So glad to see you, mate.” Louis’ eyes crinkle in a happy smile.  “Text me later about meeting up. And I’d love to see Julia as well and the kids. Got a meeting now about finishing Ed’s album. Going to look at some cover art. Need a video director for the first single. That sort of thing, but after that I’m free.”

“Sounds good. I’m sure Julia would love to catch up with you lot. If you’re talking directors I think Ben Winston’s available. Haven’t heard much from him lately, but we almost hired him for the show awhile back. Don’t really know what went wrong with negotiations, but he seems a good bloke for the job.”

Niall frowns. “Didn’t he do one of Harry’s videos? I don’t know. Tommo hates anything to do with Harry.”

“Honestly, I don’t think Ben and Harry get on anymore. Don’t recall exactly, but I don’t think Ben hasn’t said much in favour of Harry.”

“Perfect! They’ll get on like a house on fire then,” Niall says. “Best leave us his info, and Louis can talk to him about how much they hate pretentious arseholes. Actually, why don’t you both join us all tonight at Jamie’s restaurant opening? Promised Jamie I’d come and bring everyone I know who’s famous.”

*

Jamie Oliver’s restaurant opening is definitely celebrity filled. Louis isn’t exactly thrilled with crowds like this. He always wonders if he’s supposed to say hello to everyone whether he knows them or not. He just puts his game face on and works his way across the room. Eh, maybe it’s a good thing. Can’t hurt to network at a thing like this. He makes his way towards Niall who, of course, is commanding the biggest, most raucous table in the place.

He slides into a chair and says hello to the others on this end of the table. He’s glad to see James at this end talking to a rather good looking man sitting next to him. The man smiles at Louis and reaches out a hand. “Hi, I’m Ben.”

“Hiya, Ben. I’m Louis, James’ friend.”

Ben laughs, his dark eyes twinkling. “I know who you are, Louis,” he says with a grin. “James tells me you’re looking for a video director. As it happens, I am one.”

Louis smiles back. “Yeah, I am actually. Well, we all are at the label. For Ed Sheeran’s new single.”

“I’d love to hear it and give you some thoughts about it. I have a couple of big shoots coming up, but I’m sure I could make some time to maybe come by your office this week.”

Louis nods. “Sounds good. I’m looking forward to seeing what you think then.”

The Irish golfer sitting next to Louis nudges him. “Isn’t that Harry Styles?”

Louis looks up and sees Harry standing a few tables away looking right at him with an indiscernible expression on his face. He looks as though he’s about to walk over when he glances away and makes eye contact with an ashen faced Ben. Harry hesitates, his face flushing.  He turns away and sits down.

Louis knew there was bad blood between them, but this seems like something more than that. Ben looks back at Louis, “Sorry about that, I have a bit of history with that one.”

Louis raises an eyebrow. “Seems like it.”

Ben gets up to slide into the open chair next to Louis. “Louis, I don’t mean to get carried away, but I just want to tell you what a big fan I am of yours. I’d of course love to work with Ed, but I have to say I’m very glad I’m at least getting the opportunity to meet you. I’ve been following One Direction from the beginning, and I just want to say how brave it was for you to come out when you did. At the height of everything.”

“Oh, well, thanks. The boys wanted to take a break, and I figured we’d got to a place where being out wouldn’t affect their careers. The boys have known from the beginning and wanted me to come out ages ago. It ended up being a way bigger deal than I intended, but it is what it is. Honestly, I’ve been so busy with the new label I haven’t had too much time to date though, so I guess I got a bit boring to the press eventually. They haven’t tried to link me with anyone for months.”

“Well, I just wanted to tell you how much I admire you for it. Not just for that though. I’m a huge fan of your music and your songwriting. And as a director I can see what a natural gift you have in front of the camera. Although now that I’ve met you, I can say that the camera just doesn’t quite do your beauty justice.”

“Er, thanks. I’m pretty proud of the last album myself. Can’t take much credit for me looks though. Can tell me mum that. I look just like her.” Louis inwardly groans. A good looking man tells him he’s beautiful, and he says he looks like his mum. Christ.

But Ben just laughs and leans in closer to Louis. “I guess I can add modesty to the list of things I admire about you.”

Louis flushes in embarrassment, but with a pleased smile on his face.

Harry never turns their way the rest of the night.

*

Niall talks them into moving the party to a pub. Louis spends most of the night talking and laughing with Ben. He finds Ben so charming and personable. He can tell Zayn and Niall do, too. He’s got great stories about the work he’s done in the States and the famous people he’s worked with in L.A.

Ben comes back from the bar with another drink for Louis. He hands it to Louis and fidgets a bit with his shirt. He has a strange look on his face when he finally blurts out, “I know you’re probably wondering about that look between Harry Styles and I tonight.”

“Oh. Maybe a bit. James mentioned the two of you don’t get on. Don’t worry about it. He ain’t exactly my favourite person.”

“Well, I can’t pretend to be sorry about your opinion of him.” He pauses. A strained look crosses his face.  “When he was first starting out, I was hired to direct his first music video. He was so arrogant and demanding. I tried to make it work. I really did. But his demands became more and more absurd, and I just had to speak up. Some days I really wish I hadn’t. After the shoot, he told his label some awful things. I was pretty much blacklisted here, which is why I’ve been living in the states. But London is home, so I’ve come back to reclaim the place a bit. Line up some work here for a while. If Harry feels uncomfortable about it, well, he’ll just have to deal with it or avoid me. I won’t be backing down this time.”

“Good for you,” Louis says. “You really shouldn’t let him get to you after what’s happened. I always found him to be pompous, but I didn’t realize he was as bloody despicable as all that.”

“I try not to let it bother me. But what with Simon Cowell being the head of his label, he really made my life hell for a while. Well, I’ve really been monopolizing you all night, haven’t I? I should really head out. It’s been so wonderful talking with you though, Louis.” He hands Louis his card.  “Please give me a ring if you end up needing someone for Ed. I’d be happy to be a part of it if I can fit it in to my schedule. Or maybe even if you just want to talk again sometime or meet up again...” he trails off with a hopeful smile.

Louis takes the card and returns the smile. “Yeah, I’d like that. I’ll definitely call you about the video.” They say goodbye, and Louis heads over to catch up with James who, of course, wants to meet up for karaoke over the weekend. He apparently can’t get enough of it. They make plans to meet up before Zayn and Louis head home for the night. Louis ends up relaying the gist of his conversation with Ben to Zayn in the taxi. He’s a little disappointed that Zayn seems unconvinced.

“I mean, Ben seems great, Lou, but we’ve spent some time with Harry now. Just don’t seem much like him. Maybe it was more of a misunderstanding on both their parts.”

Louis frowns. “Yeah, maybe.” He looks out the window at the blur of lights as the taxi makes its way across London. He starts looking forward to the weekend of karaoke ahead and wonders if Ben will be there.


	5. Chapter 5

The Alibi is crowded. This isn’t generally Louis’ scene, but he wants to spend some time with James whilst he can. He’s scanning the crowd looking for his friends, when Liam appears before him with two drinks in his hands. “Hiya, Louis! Are you looking for Zayn? He’s over there with the others.” Liam nods his head behind him. “Thanks for inviting me along. When Zayn called the other day, he was insistent the invite was from you. So thanks.  It’s nice to be able to invite Harry to tag along instead of it always being the other way around.”

Zayn inviting Liam on his behalf is news to Louis, but whatever. Louis claps him on the shoulder. “Sure, mate. I’ll head on over with you then.”

Liam smiles, his eyes crinkling into slits. “I hope this isn’t weird, but you look really nice tonight, Louis.”

Louis blushes a bit. “Uh, thanks, Liam.” He may or may not have put a little more effort than usual into his appearance. It’s just a black tee shirt with a lighthouse on it, but he’s done his hair up. His black jeans are skin tight, not even sure they can be classified as jeans if he’s honest, but he knows his bum looks fantastic in them.

He’s disappointed to find Ben isn’t there yet, but he sees quite a few people he knows through James. He chats between songs and eventually hears from James that Ben has some business to take care of in Manchester and can’t make it tonight. “Course he may have happened to have that business on purpose once he heard Harry was coming.”

Louis glances over at Harry. Harry is already looking back at him, so Louis quickly looks away. Louis has been ignoring Harry ever since he arrived, but now he can’t help but notice that every time he looks Harry’s way, Harry is always looking back. Louis feels a little disturbed by all this intense staring, but at least he hasn’t come over and tried to talk to him.

Louis’ disappointment in Ben not showing is manifesting itself into a night of fairly heavy drinking. No matter where he goes, Harry seems to be about ten feet away staring at him. It’s really starting to piss him off. He needs another drink. 

He squeezes in next to a fairly inebriated Niall at the bar and orders another drink. “Louis! Have ya seen our lovebirds then?” He slings an arm around Louis’ shoulder and points his drink in the direction of Zayn and Liam. They do look rather cozy, talking to each other and ignoring everyone else. Out of the corner of his eye Louis can tell Harry has come to the bar. “We’re gonna sign that kid, Louis. Mark. My. Words.” He punctuates each word with a tap of his pint to Louis’ forehead.

Louis knows Harry is close enough to hear. “Mind if you keep your voice down, and oh, I don’t know, maybe stop putting your drink on me face.”

There’s no quieting a drunk Niall though. “Why I gotta keep my voice down, Lou? It’s fucking obvious as fuck that Liam is mad for him. So ya think Zayn’ll ask you to be best man or what? Ha! That’ll be hilarious what with Harry probably being Liam’s!” Niall laughs hysterically, spilling his drink all over the bar as he tries to set it down.

After staring at him all night Harry finally interrupts Louis’ conversation with Niall with a hello. “Hello? I’ve been here for like two hours. If you were wanting to say hello you’re a few hours late.”

“Yes, I know. You’ve been busy talking to people though. I saw you at Jamie Oliver’s opening. Did you enjoy your meal?”

“Yes, I did,” Louis answers.  “Actually, I believe you know someone I met that night.”

Harry’s face turns to stone.

Louis continues on. “He’s not here tonight though. Too bad.  We seemed to have a lot in common.”

Oli begins drunkenly singing a horrendous version of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One,” and Louis can’t take any more of it. This night is full of disappointments. “Be back in a minute” he says to Niall. “Going to take a piss.” He turns and heads for the loo.

The door shuts behind him and opens again soon afterwards. It’s Harry, of course. Can’t even take a piss in peace. Louis ignores him and says nothing. He’s washing his hands when Harry stands next to him to do the same. “I like this song.”

“What?”

““You’re Still the One.” It’s a Shania Twain song.”

Louis stops drying his hands and looks at Harry in astonishment.

Harry grins, his dimples emerging. “What? I’ve always liked it.”

“I know it’s a fucking Shania Twain song. I just can’t believe you like that song. Oh sure, you like Shania Twain, but hate my songs.  My songs are fucking great, you wanker. Three to four minutes of heaven, I’d say. Better than Shania fucking Twain that’s for fucking sure.”

Harry’s brows furrow. “They are, Lou. Really. Your songs. They really are great. They’re catchy and wonderful and beautiful, and I can’t get them out of my head.”

Louis pokes him in the chest with his finger. “You don’t get to say that now! I know what you really think you pretentious arsehole.”

Harry smiles and grabs Louis’ hand. “You’re drunk.”

Louis feels personally offended by Harry’s ridiculous dimples. He shakes Harry’s hand away. “So are you!” Louis shoots back. “Drunk, I mean. You’re drunk, too!”

“Maybe,” Harry laughs. “Fuck. I must be.”

Louis’ eyes narrow. “Are you laughing at me?”

Harry’s voice deepens. “What if I am? What are you going to do about it?”

“Listen you twat. I’m not going to hit you. For one thing you’re a lot bigger than me. For another thing I’m not a fighter. I’m a lover not a fighter. Well, except for maybe on Twitter.”

“Prove it.” Harry walks over and locks the door.

Louis looks at the door in amazement. “What in the actual fuck. Why would there be a lock on this door? That is so bizarre. This is a bathroom for multiple people. There are stalls in here. They’re practically encouraging people to have sex in their bathrooms and inconvenience everyone else. This is outrageous.”

 He walks over to the door and locks and unlocks the door multiple times as though to be sure it’s actually a lock. He doesn’t notice Harry’s move closer until he’s crowding him into the door. Harry clicks the lock and growls into his ear nosing along his neck. All the hairs on Louis’ neck rise. “I think I asked you to prove you aren’t a fighter, Louis.”

“Erm, what?” Louis doesn’t remember taking any hallucinogens but can’t explain what’s happening otherwise. “I…I…don’t…”

Louis feels vulnerable with his back to Harry like this, so he turns around, causing Harry to back up a few inches. He looks up at Harry. Turning around was a big mistake. Harry looks like a predator eying its prey. Harry licks his lips. Louis eyes open wide in surprise. “Uhhhhhh…”

Harry swoops in for the kiss. Louis’s mind seems to be having some trouble wrapping itself around this idea. Harry Styles is drunkenly kissing him. What has his life come to? Harry is groaning into his mouth now and pressing him up against the door. He pushes their hips together as his hands slide over Louis’ bum, and he forcefully presses Louis even further against him. Bloody hell, Harry is kissing the life out of him. Louis’ heart is pounding. His brain seems to have vacated the premises and has been replaced by firecrackers. Harry’s tongue finds entrance into his mouth. He must be on drugs for this to feel this good. He doesn’t remember taking drugs, but this continues to be the only plausible explanation for why he is kissing Harry back.

He can feel Harry’s curls. Oh. It’s because he has his hands in his hair. He tugs a bit just because he can. Harry groans again, but the feeling of Harry getting hard against him sets off massive emergency sirens in Louis’ head. Louis releases Harry’s curls and uses his hand to frantically feel for the lock on the door he is pressed up against. He finally feels it and releases it with a click and quickly pushes down on the handle. The door falls open behind him, and they both stumble out into the corridor. Harry lets out a confused “What the fuck?” Louis laughs in triumph, waves, and shouts, “Bye!” before scampering away. Harry is left smiling bemusedly at the retreating figure before him.

Harry doesn’t return to the table after their encounter in the loo. He walks up to the karaoke set up and is talking to the DJ for a while. Louis watches him nervously from their table.

Niall finally notices where Harry’s gone to. “Is Harry going to sing?” Everyone starts watching and waiting to see what Harry’s doing. Harry gets up on the small stage, and the place erupts into drunken cheers.

Harry commands the room in his typical fashion. Every person in the club is watching. He’s dressed in all black and as he clutches the mic his biceps bulge. Louis wonders how many other people have noticed that Harry is still hard in his jeans. Just when Louis thinks he can’t stand the anticipation any longer, the opening guitar riff of Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman” starts.  

Harry licks his lips and sings the first line. _Don’t need permission/Made my decision/to test my limits._

Everyone but Louis jumps up, hooting and hollering. Harry is almost to the chorus when Louis stands up to watch as well, his legs shaking beneath him. He’s thankful no one is looking at him as he can feel his face burning. He spoke too soon. There is definitely someone watching him. Harry intensely stares at him as he belts out, _Somethin’ ‘bout you/makes me feel like a dangerous woman/Somethin’ ‘bout/somethin’ ‘bout/somethin’ ‘bout you/Makes me wanna do things that I shouldn’t._

Well. Okay, then. Louis’ legs refuse to hold him up any longer, and he sinks back into his chair.

Harry absolutely brings the house down. This will be the stuff of myths and legends, the night Harry Styles sang the shit out of “Dangerous Woman” to a crowd of people at The Alibi.

*

Louis watches as Harry is bombarded with people when he climbs down off the stage. He’s never been more confused in his life. Harry is scanning the crowd. Is he looking for him? Louis feels a wave of panic. He has to get the fuck out of here. His last shred of luck has held out in the form of a wall of people between them that Harry can’t make his way through. Louis grabs Zayn’s arm. “Z, I have to go.”

“What? Now? Did you see Harry up there? Christ, that was fucking—“ Zayn turns to look at Louis.  “Uh, mate. You don’t look so good.” He eyes Louis suspiciously. “What’s going on?”

“I honestly have no fucking idea, but I have to get out of here. Now.”

“Okay, I’m coming with you. Just let me say—“ He looks around, clearly for Liam, but Liam is at the front of the crowd with Harry. Zayn frowns. “I’ll just text him then.” He sends a quick text and says goodbye to Taylor as he slides out of his chair. “Come on. And I expect an explanation.”

Louis ducks his head and quickly makes his way toward the door. As soon as they enter the taxi, Zayn says, “Spill it. What’s going on?”

“Ehm, well—I—he--we. I don’t know.”

“Okay, that clears up a lot, Lou.”

Louis groans and throws his head back dramatically against the seat cushions. “I think I…well, I guess I…IkissedHarryintheloo.”

“YOU KISSED HARRY STY—“ Louis claps his hand over Zayn’s mouth. Zayn lets out a muffled sorry.

“Yes,” Louis hisses. “Well, I kissed him back anyway. I think maybe I was drugged or something. Okay, no I wasn’t. Shouldn’t joke about that. I’m just. Oh god. I am very confused right now.” He clears his throat to firmly say, “I would like to defend myself by saying that I was just trying to go take a piss, and then Harry decided to rub his lips all over me.”

Zayn’s eyes bug out of his head. “All over you? Like did you guys—“

“No! I meant just like, all over my lips. And like my neck a bit. It was mostly his hands that were rubbing my bum—“

“Told you he liked your bum, mate.”

“Oh my god. Shut up. It doesn’t matter. I’m drunk. Clearly. That is the only reason this happened. Yes, and Harry must be really drunk to have done this. He probably won’t even remember this happened. We should just forget this whole thing.”

“Dude. Harry Styles just got on a stage and fucking killed it singing an Ariana Grande song. People are going to be talking about how amazing he was for weeks. Months probably. He definitely wasn’t that drunk.”

Louis just groans.

Zayn’s and Louis’ phones start vibrating with texts. They both pick up their phones. They have texts from Niall, Ed, Oli, and several other people at this point. They’re all of the same thing, links to video of Harry singing tonight. Zayn starts watching one of them. “Holy shit, Lou. He’s singing this to you, isn’t he?”

Louis ignores the question and angrily clicks back out of the links. “What is wrong with people? Why is this already on YouTube?”

“Harry has some rabid fans. Mate, we know all about rabid fans.”

*

Louis wakes up with a hangover from hell. Without opening his eyes, he reaches his hand out to find the water bottle he left on his nightstand, but instead feels his phone vibrating on it. He ignores the phone and takes some long gulps of water. His eyes pop open. He remembers. Fuck. He kissed Harry last night. He needs to stop saying it like that even to himself. Harry kissed him. Better, but still not great.

His phone is vibrating nonstop. He’s scared to look and see what’s going on. He bites his thumb nail for a good minute before picking up his phone. Fuck that’s a lot of text messages. Most of them are from Zayn and Niall. He opens the latest one from Zayn.

                _Ok but nobody can really prove hes singing to u. So prob don’t even worryabout it._

Louis’ heart sinks. He clicks on a video Niall has attached. There’s grainy footage of Harry singing last night, but then you can see whoever shot this video starts to look through the crowd aiming away from Harry. She’s looking for who he’s singing to. The camera stops abruptly and shows a wide eyed Louis sinking slowly into a chair. The camera focuses in on him as he sits there with astonishment written all over his face. The camera then focuses back on Harry.  The accompanying text from Niall says,

                _No worries! Only the hardcore Harries will be hunting ya after today. Ha!_

A new text appears. It’s from Ben.

_Sorry I wasn’t able to come last night! Hope you had fun though. If you’re not too busy today, I have some free time to come by your office. Let me know!_

Louis texts him back to stop by whenever he’s free. And then goes to take a long shower to try and wash away last night.

It doesn’t work.

*

When Louis walks into the office, heads pop out of offices and the general commotion of the office immediately halts. Everyone is staring at him. “What? Does no one have anything to do, or?”

Zayn eyes him warily. “Why are you still wearing your sunglasses?”

“Because I’m fucking hungover, Zayn. Any more stupid questions?”

“Hey, don’t bite my head off! I’m not the one who ki—“

“Zayn! What the fuck!” He pushes Zayn into his office and accidentally slams the door. He winces at the loud noise. Great, more for everyone to talk about. “So why’s everyone acting so weird?”

Zayn raises an eyebrow. “Are you joking? The Harries are all over Twitter about last night. Dangerous Woman is trending. And there’s a smallish, but vocal group all questioning whether he was singing that song about someone or not. He hasn’t been seen with someone in months. And now there’s a video where he appears to possibly be singing to you.”

Louis rests his head on his desk.

“I mean, it’s not all bad, Lou. It looks like his people are spinning it like you guys are friends, and he was singing it to you as like a joke or whatever. The update accounts keep calling it a bromance.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Zayn continues. “No, really. Some of the Harries have gone back the last couple weeks and found photos of you both at a lot of the same events and places. Someone even has a photo of you both outside Cirque. Taylor is in the pic, too, but they’ve proven you guys hang out at least.”

“But how do they already know all this? It just happened last night! Like hours ago even!” Louis insists.

“I know.  They’re a bit intense.”

Zayn’s phone buzzes in his hand. He looks down and frowns at the incoming text.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing. I guess you won’t have to worry about Harry for a while. Taylor just texted that she and Harry and Liam are headed back to Cheshire.” Zayn just keeps looking down at the text.

“Oh. When are they coming back?”

“Don’t know. She doesn’t say.” He hands the phone to Louis. The text is pretty abrupt. Louis taps back to the message screen and taps on Liam’s name. He scrolls back through his and Zayn’s previous conversations. They’re pretty flirtatious, and it appears Liam uses an excessive amount of emojis.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Reading your texts with Liam.”

Zayn reaches for his phone, and Louis slaps his hand away. “So what’s going on between you and Liam anyway?”

“Nothing. We’re just friends.”

“Uh, huh. I see. I like to tell my friends that their hair looks like “a cascading black waterfall” too.” Zayn blushes. “I see you also like to admire photos of Liam in tight shirts.” Zayn snatches the phone out of his hands. “Did I see a heart eyes emoji?”

“I really doubt I sent Liam a heart eyes emoji,” Zayn sniffs.

“Keep telling yourself that, mate.”

There’s a polite knock at the door.

“Come in,” Louis calls out.

It’s Ben. “Hello. Your PA said to go ahead and come back. Hi, Zayn.”

Louis smiles brightly. “Ben! Hello, yes come on in. Zayn and I would love to hear your thoughts for the single.”


	6. Chapter 6

In the days following the disastrous night at Alibi Louis keeps busy at work. 78 Records is a busy place at the moment. They’ve been meeting with video directors and finalized the cover art for Ed.

Zayn seems a bit mopey. He checks his phone a lot and sighs. He does it again as they’re eating lunch at Louis’ desk. “Still nothing from Liam, eh?”

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Well, I don’t know what happened, but something is really off about it. He seemed pretty into you. Why don’t you text him?”

“No.”

“Thank you for your participation in this scintillating lunch conversation.”

Zayn starts messing with his phone.

Louis throws up his hands. “Great, so now you’re not even going to speak.”

Zayn says nothing and hands him the phone. Zayn’s pulled up Taylor’s Facebook page to her latest post. It’s a selfie of her and Liam.

                _Liam is having writer’s block and needs a muse. Can’t wait until you’re here_ Gemma Styles _!! We need you xx_

“Huh. Well, I mean, I don’t see that that really means anything. Just because Taylor says Gemma is his muse doesn’t mean she actually is.” Zayn just snorts in response. “Well, I hope you have more to say in our meeting than just rude noises.” Zayn throws away his half eaten sandwich and heads for the door. They make their way down to the conference room in silence.

*

They decide to go with Joseph Kahn for the video. He has an interesting idea for an interactive app to go with the video.

Ed looks hesitantly at Louis. “You’re not upset are you?”

“About what?”

“Well, that we didn’t choose your boyfriend for the job.  Sorry mate, but his ideas were just too literal. ”

Louis colours a bit. “Don’t know what you’re on about.”

Luke laughs. “Aw, come off it, Lou. Everyone’s seen Ben following you about like a puppy.”

“Ben’s not my boyfriend, but okay.”

“Well, when you tell him he didn’t get the job, try not to lead him on, Louis,” Ed laughs.

“Ha ha. Yes, I’ll try to keep Ben from falling in love with me. I make no promises though. This arse, you know. Greater men have fallen.”

Zayn laughs for the first time all week. “Well, isn’t that the truth?”

Louis shoots him a dirty look, but he’s glad to see Zayn laughing if even for a moment.

*

It’s starting to really piss Louis off. It’s been another week of radio silence from Liam. As far as he knows Liam hasn’t signed with anyone else yet. He’d like to check in on him, but he also doesn’t want to upset Zayn. This week Zayn’s decided to put on a brave face. Well, a fake-happy-but-actually-look-constipated-face anyway. He keeps pretending to make fun plans with people, but then he never actually goes anywhere. He’s struggling, and Louis doesn’t like it one bit.

They’re supposed to be eating lunch, but Zayn just keeps checking his phone. “What? Why are you staring at me?”

Louis takes a sip of soda. “Just you know, worried about you a bit.”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“Right. So you still haven’t heard from Liam then?”

“No. It’s not like we were dating, Lou. Just friends anyway. Nothing happened. Everything is fine,” Zayn says never looking up from his phone.

“Okay, so what are you looking at right now?”

“Nothing.” Zayn colours a bit and stashes his phone in his pocket. “Was just checking Facebook, s’all.”

Louis raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really? So how’s Taylor then?”

“Dunno. Fine, I guess. She’s still very excited about Gemma coming. Like talks about it a lot, I guess.”

“Well, personally I think she’s trying a bit too hard. I think it’s all more about Taylor wanting in with Gemma to get to Harry. She must be hoping he’s bi. But damn, going through his sister seems shit.”

“Don’t care.”

Louis sighs. “Right.”

Louis is going to give it another week, and then if he hasn’t heard from Liam, he’s going to call him. Just business. Or maybe just so he can tell him to fuck off now that he’s dropped Zayn for no reason.

One week. One more week and he’s making that phone call.

*

One more day. Tomorrow, this wanker is getting a phone call. To be honest, he’s never seen Zayn like this. It wasn’t even a break up, but Zayn has lapsed into bad break up behavior. He looks like he hasn’t slept, his clothes are wrinkled, and Louis suspects he hasn’t showered in a while.  

Louis stares at his phone. He wonders how much Liam’s absence has to do with Harry Styles. Maybe he’ll call Liam right now while he’s still angry, but the phone buzzes a text instead. It’s James.

                _Care to be my plus one tonight? Julia’s decided to stay in Cheshire. It’s fancy so air out your most expensive jeggings. Fly back to the States tomorrow so I’d love to see you before I go !!_

 

                _I’m in. gotta go bust out my fancy jeggings eh? ahaha where are we going?_

_Simon Cowell’s charity event. Pick you up at 7._

*

James laughs as Louis dives into the car. “I can’t believe you wore those.”

“You practically dared me to wear them, James. You know how I am about dares.” Louis flashes him a grin. Yes, he’s worn black jeggings, but he’s proper dressed up. He’s done his hair up, and he’s wearing a suit jacket and a tie.

“I hate that you’ve worn jeggings and look ten times handsomer than me.”

“Aw, James. Should I have dressed down a bit more for you? Worn me joggers?”

James snorts. “No, you’d just look fantastic in those, too.”

“Right, right. Now, where are we headed?”

“Dorchester Hotel. It’s a charity event Simon is hosting. I would have brought Julia, but she’s staying in Cheshire for a few more weeks before heading back to the States. You should go up and visit her actually. You haven’t had a chance to catch up at all.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. I’d love to the see her and the kids.”

James smiles. “Well, let’s go get our picture taken and spend some money.”

*

There are cocktails flowing before dinner and the auction to follow. Louis lost James in the crowd a while ago, and he’s just perusing the items up for auction. He’s definitely bidding on the football stuff. There are some nice vacations that might be nice for his mum as well. He’s eying one for Tuscany when Simon Cowell approaches.

Simon reaches out a hand to shake. “Louis Tomlinson! Hello! Didn’t know you’d be coming tonight.”

Louis shakes his hand. “Well, I weren’t invited if that’s what you mean. I tagged along with Corden.”

“No, no, I’m very happy you’ve come. Your picture will gain us some press, and you can afford to bid high at the auction,” he chuckles. “I’ll be sure to send you a formal invite next year. Well, that is if you haven’t sunk all your money into your little label.”

“Yes, well it won’t be so little next year, mate.  I’d sink every pound I’ve got into Ed Sheeran. That’s how certain I am about Ed.”

“Yes, well, you’ll need more than just one artist to make a label.”

“I expect people will be a bit more interested in the label after they hear Ed’s new album, wouldn’t you say?”

Simon laughs. “Well, perhaps. I hear you’ve had some trouble getting Liam Payne to sign on the dotted line.”

“I hear you’ve had trouble getting Harry Styles to sign for you again on the dotted line,” Louis shoots back right before Simon is enveloped into a Nick Grimshaw hug that nearly knocks him over.

“Simon! So sorry we’re late! We thought we were sat in traffic for ages, but we were just behind loads of parked cars.”

Simon pats Nick on the shoulder. “No worries, Nicholas. But you’ve missed your chance to get your picture taken outside, I expect. Devastating for you, I’m sure.”

“Without a doubt. I blame Harry, here.” Nick motions to a spot behind Louis. Louis doesn’t dare turn around. He didn’t realize Harry had returned to London. “We would have been quite early, but he had too many floral suits to decide between. Louis! All right? Been an age since I’ve seen you! Probably not since your last interview on Radio 1.”

“Grimshaw. Yeah, haven’t really been hanging around too many, you know, fashion shows and whatever.”

Nick breaks out into a wide grin and laughs. “Is that what you think I do?”

Louis flushes a little and grins back. “Well, pretty much.”

“Well, I propose you come out with me tomorrow. Me and my mates. You know, the lads, as you’d say. Well, if the lads are mainly female. As it happens there is a bit of a party tomorrow celebrating my latest fashion line with TopMan.”

“So you’re proving you do exactly what I thought you do.”

“Oi, Tomlinson. But you have no idea what the party will be like! Maybe you’ll quite enjoy a fashion party!”

Louis can practically feel Harry staring at him, but he’s still behind him and can’t actually tell. Simon is back to being a smiling host. “Well, I should be making my rounds. Make sure you drive the bidding up boys.” He takes his leave, and Louis looks back at Nick.

Nick flutters his eyelashes at Louis. “Come on, Louis! I did just get you out of whatever argument was going on with you and Cowell.”

Louis nods and smiles. “That’s true. Fine, I’ll come. No idea why you’d want me to come to some fashion thing, but okay. Give me your phone. I’ll text myself, so you have the number. Just text me the details tomorrow.” He takes Grimmy’s proffered phone.

He hands the phone back to Grimmy. “Great,” Nick says as he weaves his arm through Louis’ arm. “Now come buy me and Harry a drink. We’ve only just got here. And Harry deserves one for wearing a light pink suit.” He finally glances back at Harry who is standing much closer than he anticipated. But Harry is looking at where he and Nick’s arms are linked.

*

Louis eventually hunts down James.

“Thought we were supposed to be spending time together, mate.”

James smirks. “Looked like you were awfully busy over there with Nick Grimshaw. Didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Nothing to interrupt. Just having a laugh. Wants me to come to some fashion party or summat. Don’t know why.”

James starts wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “So no reason he’d want you to come, eh? I think your jeggings have accomplished just what you wanted them to accomplish. Ah, speak of the devil.”

Nick glides into the chair beside Louis, hearing only the last bit of the conversation. “Is this true? You’re both sat over here talking about me? I’m so flattered!” He fans himself with the auction booklet.

Louis rolls his eyes, and Nick whaps him on the arm with the booklet. “Behave. I’ve come for a photo with you. If I’ve spent all my time tonight talking to you, I want to be able to prove it. Don’t want to mention it to Aimee, and then have her tell me she doesn’t believe me. Just one selfie, okay? To commemorate this moment since you’ll probably stand me up tomorrow for my party.”

“Fine, but I said I’d come to the party, so I’ll be there.”

They try to take a decent selfie, but Nick doesn’t like any of the angles. “James, could you be a dear and take a photo?” James zooms out and takes a few photos.

“Thanks, James!” Nick glances through the photos before lingering on one. “On second thought, I think I’ll be tweeting this one if you don’t mind.”

“Don’t mind, but just be warned the press’ll be writing about you being me boyfriend in like an hour. They’ll take any hint to match me up with someone.”

Nick’s grin grows exponentially as he types out a tweet. “Oh, I really don’t think so, Louis. Okay, well I’ll leave you to send your farewells to James, here. Abandoning us for the Americans again.”

James and Louis bid on and buy a few of the first items at auction before James suggest they head back to Louis’ for a nightcap. Bit quieter. They can really have a nice chat. They climb in James’ car and head towards Louis’ house. Louis has quite a few texts from Oli, but he doesn’t open them. He can see a few of them say the word Twitter in them. Well, that picture of he and Grimmy must have exploded. He’d told him this would happen.

He opens Twitter. It’s not what he expected. There’s the picture James took. It’s a lovely picture of Louis and Nick smiling at the camera with Nick’s arm around Louis’ shoulders, but it’s zoomed quite far out. Far out enough to capture Harry Styles giving them a death stare. Well, the tweet makes sense now.

                _Out for a great cause tonight at the #ShootingStarChase ball ! @Louis_Tomlinson great to see you! #someonesjealous_

Louis groans. “Fuck.”

“All right?”

“No, fucking Grimshaw. He’s posted that photo, but he’s hashtagged it jealous, and it’s got Harry in the background maybe looking at us.”

James starts laughing.

“Stop that. Ain’t funny. Now people are going to be talking shit about it.”

“Talking shit about Larry, you mean?”

“Who the fuck is Larry? No, I’m talking about this fucking picture of me with Nick and Harry looking like a fucking creep.”

“No, I know. Larry is your ship name.”

“What?”

“It’s your ship name! With Harry! You know, like Brangelina. Well, you both are Larry. Larry Stylinson.”

“We have a last name, too? Fuck.”

James frowns. “Yeah, it’s pretty serious now, I guess, if they’ve picked out a last name.”

Louis scrolls through the comments. There’s a lot about Larry Stylinson. Well, he hopes Harry has a sense of humor about it. Yeah, probably not. Maybe he should say something to help. He could say something to throw people off.

_@grimmers someone’s just jealous over my winning bid for dinner with David Beckham._

There. Now, he’s given a decent explanation.

What Louis doesn’t expect is Harry to ruin it.

                _@Louis_Tomlinson I assure you that isn’t why I’m jealous_

Okay, but maybe Harry is jealous because of Grimmy. Louis begins trying to compose a tweet when Grimmy cuts in.

                _Nice one @Louis_Tomlinson Now he’ll be jealous of David Beckham as well. Watch out, Becks!_

Louis puts his phone away. Best to pretend this isn’t happening. Harry doesn’t understand what’s going to happen now. Doesn’t he understand how linked their names are becoming? Apparently, he and Nick are having a laugh about it, but it makes him uneasy.

He’s proven right the next day when he sees #LarryStylinson trending. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, can you tell I love Nick Grimshaw? Also, if you've read Pride and Prejudice, is he not the perfect Colonel Fitzwilliam? I know. He is. Also, his real life tweet about being stuck in traffic is one of my favorite things ever, so that's why it's worked its way in here.


	7. Chapter 7

Louis grumbles as he goes through piles of clothes strewn about his closet. What is he supposed to wear to a fashion party? Christ. He shouldn’t have agreed to go.

His phone buzzes with a text from Zayn.

                _On my way to your house. Be there in ten_

He opens the door to a smug looking Zayn. He’s holding garment bags.

“You didn’t!”

“I did.”

“Zayn! Thank fuck because I have no idea what to wear.”

“I’ve brought you a few jumpers from his collection, or you could just wear this jacket from his collection over something else I’ve brought. Not too warm tonight luckily. I called a few of his people to get them. It’s kind of the thing to do. Show up in the clothes of the designer.”

Louis decides on the leather bomber jacket over a black YSL tee shirt Zayn’s picked out. It’s cool with a graphic of vampire fangs. Louis likes it. He puts on black skinnies, and Zayn has even brought over new trainers. They’re [black, studded skate shoes ](http://www.polyvore.com/valentino_black_rubber_rockstud_leather/thing?id=132111122)really. “These are cool. New Vans?”

Zayn laughs. “No, they’re Valentino actually.”

“Say what now? Valentino makes skate shoes?”

“Apparently.”

“I’ve seen it all now, mate.”

 There’s not really enough time to shave, but he looks fine. He styles his hair into a quick fringe, and he’s ready to go.

Zayn drops him off at Odette’s where Nick has rented out the place for the night. He’s quite pleasantly surprised at how low key everything is. People everywhere. Food and drinks circulating through the various rooms. Definitely not his usual crowd of people, but he stops to say hi to a few. He finally spots Nick holding court surrounded by black and white pictures of, what else, himself. Well, and a few of his dog. “Louis! Louis, you’ve come! I can hardly believe it!”

Nick breaks free from the circle surrounding him and rushes to side hug Louis whilst still holding a glass of wine. He gets in a few air kisses as well.

“I told you I’d come. I see the décor leaves something to be desired.” He eyes all the photographs of Nick.

“Very funny, Lou. I see you’re wearing something from these photographs. The jacket looks brill on you!”

“Thanks. Arms are a bit long though.” Louis lets the sleeves sink down over his hands.

“Sweater paws!” Nick crows. “You are too adorable!”

Harry appears beside them. “What are sweater paws?”

“Oh, just when adorable little beans have sleeves that are too long for them, and they hang past their wrists.”

“Aw, give me a break. I’m big,” Louis insists with a grin.

Harry snorts. “Compared to who?” he says as he stands up straighter, even taller with his boots on.

“Are you trying to frighten me? I can tell you it won’t work. Not really intimidated by much. Especially men in heels.”

“No, I’m not trying to frighten you, but then you knew that. I know you well enough now to know you like to claim things you don’t actually mean just to be contrary.”

Louis laughs. “Well, I’m caught out, I guess. Rude of you to sell me out in front of your friends. Are you hoping to provoke me into naming a few of your faults to Nick?”

Harry smiles. “I’m not afraid of you, Louis.”

Nick’s eyes widen. “Do tell! Tell me all about how Harry behaves when his friends aren’t around!”

Louis leans in, conspiratorially. “Well, the first night I met Harry, he was with Liam. And he didn’t speak a word to me the whole night. Or to any of my friends. Even though we were talking to Liam, he just ignored us.”

“I didn’t actually know any of you,” Harry points out.

“True. And no one can ever be introduced in a bar.”

Harry shrugs. “Maybe I should have introduced myself, but I’m not good with strangers.”

Louis turns to Nick. “Maybe your friend could explain this. Why does a man with millions of fans think he isn’t good with strangers?” He turns back to Harry.  “Or I guess we could ask him.”

Nick grins. “We don’t need to ask him. It’s because he can’t be arsed to give himself the trouble.”

“I’m not as good as others at pretending to be interested in things I’m not or in people I don’t know.” Harry smiles slowly. “And I don’t think you are either.”

Damn it. Louis sees his point. Time to escape. “Well, on that note I’m going to go find me a drink.” He nods at Nick and Harry and turns and walks through into another room of the restaurant.

Harry is being kept busy by his friends, and Louis has chatted with a few acquaintances but mostly with Nick. He heads towards the outdoor patio to smoke when he notices a stair case and walks up to check out all the hidden little spaces in this place. Such a cool place this is.

Fuck. He sees Harry walking up the stairs and attempts to hide behind some large dark curtains usually reserved to cordon off a seating section. “Louis?” he hears him calls out.

Louis tries to step back further behind the curtain, but he accidentally catches his foot. He’s already flailing backward grabbing at the curtain as Harry reaches for him. They stumble back into the curtain, laughing. The dark chocolate drapes swirl around them as Louis realizes Harry is still holding him around the waist.

Harry stops laughing. He stares at Louis and carefully pushes a tendril of Louis’ hair behind his ear. He does it so carefully and with such concentration as though it’s an important task. His breathing is uneven. Louis can smell the red wine on his breath right before Harry presses his lips to his. This kiss is gentler, more deliberate than their last one, yet it causes the same fireworks in Louis’ brain. They both hear someone ascending the stairs quite loudly and break apart quickly putting several feet of distance between them. Louis is still looking at Harry in shock when Nick rounds the corner.

“Whatcha up to up here, lads? No matter. We’re heading out. Back to yours then, Harry? Louis, are you coming?”

“Yes, he’s coming,” Harry says as he turns and starts walking down the stairs.

“Well then.” Louis turns to Nick. “I guess I’m coming.”

“I guess you are,” Nick echoes as they watch Harry walk down the remaining few steps.

*

Nick and his friends pile into hired cars. Nick pulls Louis into the first one. He doesn’t see where Harry’s gone. They drive a short distance to Harry’s house and climb out. Louis makes his way up the walk to Harry’s house just as uncomfortable as the first time he walked up to it. At least he knows this is actually his house this time. Look at the bright side and all that.

Nick immediately heads for the kitchen and starts emptying out the liquor cabinet and popping open bottles of wine. Louis takes a bottle of vodka from him and pours out a shot. He feels so unnerved by the kiss. He needs to just calm the fuck down. He takes the shot and turns to see Harry watching him, his arms crossed leaning against the opposite kitchen counter. Louis coughs a bit as the liquor slides down his throat. He’s just a little surprised Harry was in the room is all.

Harry speaks first. “You choke a lot.”

“Do not.”

“Do so,” he laughs. “You choked on your drink the first night I met you.”

Right. “Forgot about that.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yes, well, congratulations on your stellar memory,” Louis says as he pours out another shot.

Rita Ora walks into the room. “Just coming for a glass of wine and look here! We’ve got Larry Stylinson in the kitchen!”

Louis cringes. He doesn’t know why he thought it wouldn’t come up. He smiles weakly at her and doesn’t dare glance at Harry. He’s sure Harry realizes now what a mistake those tweets were.

Nick raises a glass in toast and hands Rita a glass of wine. “To the bromance of the century! All hail Larry Stylinson!” He and Rita clink glasses.

Louis is sure his face is an unflattering shade of red.

Rita eyes them for a long moment. “You know, I hadn’t even realized you two knew each other. And now you’re connected at the hip.”

“We really aren’t. It’s kind of a coincidence,” Louis insists.

Nick snorts. “Right. Big ol’ coincidence all this is.”

Louis continues to avoid Harry’s eye. He doesn’t want to see what Harry thinks about all this. He’s sure it isn’t good. He doesn’t want to see the rejection in his eyes. Fuck. Why doesn’t he want to see rejection in Harry’s eyes? He feels panic begin to well up. “Think I need a smoke.”

 He attempts to calmly leave the room, but then tries to maneuver quickly through to the front hall and out the front door. He doesn’t look behind him, afraid to see if Harry is following him and afraid he isn’t. He decides right outside the door isn’t safe enough and huddles out by the garage in the shadows. He doesn’t know if he’s disappointed or relieved that Harry didn’t follow. Fuck’s sake, what is wrong with him? He tells himself that he already knows Harry is a bit of a dick, what with his behavior towards him and his friends and all the shit that went on with Ben. It’s just that the more Louis’ gotten to know him, the less sure he is that Harry is who he thought he was.

How long can one stand outside hidden in the bushes at a party before it becomes ridiculous? Probably not long. Louis sighs and heads back in. He didn’t even remember to smoke.

He doesn’t see Harry when he walks in, so he goes to join the circle of people talking with Nick. Gradually, the crowd around Nick lessens a bit as someone turns on music in the next room. Nick takes Louis’ arm and guides him into the kitchen for another drink. Louis has probably had more than enough to drink, but he’s so fucking confused right now. Drinking seems like the answer. They mix up a boatload of alcohol and juices and make up silly names for their drinks. “You should have brought Zayn ‘round. You two are the real bromance of the century.”

“Yeah, I should have. He hasn’t really been himself lately though. He probably wouldn’t have wanted to come.” Louis frowns, remembering he was going to call Liam today.

“Really? Too bad then. Sounds similar to Liam. I guess he’s been a bit out of sorts back in Cheshire. Harry says it’s for the best though.”

Louis’ heart starts to pound. “What’s wrong with Liam?”

“Oh, some heartbreak or other. I got the feeling he should be indebted about it to Harry though. Seems Harry got him out of some tangle.”

“A tangle?”

“I don’t really know the particulars. Just that it wasn’t someone really suitable for Liam or something. And Harry convinced him to go home for a bit and just concentrate on his music.”

Louis can feel his jaw tightening. “Really? What were his objections to this person?”

“Oh, I dunno. Harry didn’t really say,” Nick shrugs.

“Well, that’s a bit shit innit? Telling people who they can or can’t be with?”

“You don’t think he should have interfered then?”

“I don’t see what right he has to decide who is or isn’t right for his friend. But you know what? It doesn’t even matter. I suppose if Liam had really been in love with this person, he wouldn’t have listened to Harry.”

Nick looks at him curiously. “Well, I suppose not.”

They’re silent for a minute as Louis rages inside. He wishes he could just leave, but he hasn’t got a car. Not that he should be driving as much as he’s had to drink. He needs a taxi. Fuck Harry Styles. What a fucking tosser. Zayn is at home heartbroken and for what? Harry’s fucking whims? What could he have against Zayn for fuck’s sake? Zayn is fucking awesome. Louis swallows the rest of his drink and turns back to the counter. “I need another drink.”

He manages to avoid Harry the rest of the night. Making sure to always be surrounded by groups of people. He dances a lot with Nick’s friends, and everyone wants to feel the rubbery studs on his fancy Valentino skater shoes.

People are starting to leave. Harry offers to call them all taxis. He sends people off in pairs or small groups according to who lives near who. Louis starts getting nervous when it’s just he and Nick left. And he knows he doesn’t live near Nick. In fact, doesn’t Nick live really close by? “Well, mates, it’s been lovely.” Louis stands up, so Nick can hug him goodbye. “Louis, hit me up to hang out next week. I’m just gonna walk home.” He hugs Harry and walks out the door, abandoning Louis. Where’s his taxi? “Where’s my taxi?”

“I didn’t call you one.” Louis looks up and sees the fire burning in Harry’s eyes. He gulps.

Harry crosses the room in long strides towards him. Louis is frozen to the spot, staring helplessly as the clear green of Harry’s eyes draws closer. When Harry reaches him, he crowds Louis up against the wall behind him and growls into his ear, “I can’t do this anymore.” His lips capture Louis’ lips roughly, as arousal shoots down Louis’ spine. Harry keeps talking between each punishing kiss. “I can’t stay away.” His lips slide down Louis’ throat. “Why can’t I leave you alone?” His lips slide back up just behind Louis’ ear as he breathes, “I wish I could control myself around you.” His lips recapture Louis’ lips for a brief, forceful kiss. “I wish I didn’t want you.” Louis suddenly remembers why he’s angry. He bites down on Harry’s lip, but Harry just moans in response.

“You fucking wanker. I know what you’ve done. I know you’ve kept Liam and Zayn apart.”

A small bit of surprise creeps into Harry’s voice, “I don’t see what that has to do with this. Fuck, I can’t keep pretending I don’t want you.”

And at that, Harry sinks down and flings Louis over one shoulder and begins carrying him towards the staircase. “What the fuck are you doing? Have you gone mad? Put me down!”

“I think you know what I’m doing, Louis.” One large hand strokes over Louis’ bum as he carries him up the stairs.

Louis’ head is spinning. He does not in fact know what Harry is doing. How can this even be happening? Fine, he does know what is happening, but fuck he hasn’t had sex in so long. That’s all this is. Just sex. So what if it’s angry sex. It’s just a one-time thing. He’s still convincing himself to go through with it as Harry kicks in a door. It swings wide open.

He throws Louis on the bed and crashes down on top of him. He can feel Harry breathing hotly against him before he feels Harry’s hands tilt his head to meet his lips in another bruising kiss.  Louis entwines his fingers into Harry’s curls and yanks his face to one side as he sucks a bruise into Harry’s neck. Louis hopes it feels like a punishment, but he can feel Harry growing hard against him as he grinds down on to him.

Louis starts unbuttoning Harry’s shirt with shaking fingers, but Harry impatiently sits up, straddling him as he rips his shirt off over his head. His fingers begin smoothing Louis’ tee shirt up slowly as Harry eyes each inch of skin hungrily. He spreads his large palm over Louis’ stomach, feeling the hair that travels further below his jeans as Louis tenses beneath him. He pulls Louis forward to pull his tee shirt up and over his head before throwing it behind him. They stare at each other for a moment before Harry pushes him back onto the bed and pins Louis’ arms beside him and begins licking over the tattoos crossing Louis’ chest and collarbones. Louis squirms beneath him. “Come on. Get your jeans off.”

Harry shoots up off the bed, quickly stripping off his jeans and pants and revealing himself, large and hard. Louis props up on his elbows to look, but Harry begins crawling back up the bed and over Louis. He quickly pops the button on his skinnies and rips the zipper down. “Oi, don’t bust my…” Louis trails off as Harry noses along the line of his pants before he finishes the job by yanking his jeans all the way off. Harry stills. He stares down at Louis. When Louis begins to protest, Harry captures both his wrists with one hand and presses them over his head. His other hand glides slowly down Louis’ chest until he reaches his dick. He slowly strokes down as Louis moans.

Harry looks back to watch Louis’ face as he strokes him. “God, how I want you. Never wanted anyone how I want you.” He stops his hand.  “Say my name.”

“No.”

Harry chuckles darkly. His fingers press into Louis’ thigh and circle around his aching dick. Louis groans. “Just say it, Louis. Just once,” he whispers.

“No,” he moans. He’s not fucking saying his name. It’s just a one night stand.

Harry’s fingers explore lower, just brushing over Louis’ hole to the sound of Louis finally gasping his name. Harry triumphantly strokes him once more before he releases Louis’ hands and grabs for the lube in the open drawer. He presses a long finger inside him as Louis’ body arches beneath him. “I dream about this. About spreading you open with my fingers. Watching you just like this before I fuck you.”

Louis squirms helplessly on the bed as Harry works his finger in and out before pressing in a second finger. The sound of Harry’s deep voice sending shivers down his spine. It’s been a long time since Louis has been with someone. He’s overwhelmed by the lust building up inside him. He refuses to beg for more, but he needs Harry to hurry the fuck up. He rocks back onto Harry’s fingers. It sends the right message. Harry slides his fingers out and hurriedly slides a pillow under him. He fumbles for a condom knocking over the books on the bedside table. The resulting crash startles Louis, almost enough for his brain to start functioning again to remind him this is a terrible idea. Just as the thought starts to creep in, Harry pushes inside him. All his thoughts vanish, leaving behind only rockets and sparklers and Roman candles exploding behind his eyes.

Harry looms over him. His biceps bulge with the strain of holding himself still inside Louis. His head nodded down with his long hair falling forward. “Are you okay?” he bites out.

In a daze Louis tries to understand his words. “What? Yes. More. Christ, Harry, fucking get on with it.”

Harry’s head snaps up, his eyes sparkling as he slides back out and thrusts back in.

“Keep moving,” Louis demands.

“Should have known you’d be demanding.”

“Just shut up and keep moving.”

Harry doesn’t shut up, but he keeps moving, thrusting in and out. His cross necklace dangles down to caress Louis’ chest as he moves. It’s driving Louis mad. Harry moans over and over through each forceful thrust speaking words Louis doesn’t listen to, how much he wants him, how much he thinks about him, how much he admires him, how much he wants to be with him. Harry thrusts in again, this time stroking Louis once as Louis whimpers and comes all over Harry’s hand and onto his own stomach. Harry looks down, “Fuck, you’re so hot,” he says as he drives one more time into him before shuddering as he comes, emptying himself into Louis. He collapses, a bead of sweat dripping off him onto Louis’ chest. A few moments later he pulls out slowly and lays back onto the bed.

As Harry lays beside him, nearly asleep now, Louis’ brain begins functioning again. White, hot anger replaces the lust. He jumps off the bed and stalks to the bathroom. He cleans himself up and looks at his reflection in the mirror. He scrubs a hand over his face. What the fuck is he doing? He’s got to get the hell out of here.

He calls a taxi service. He’s lucky for the first time tonight. They can be here in five minutes. He stalks back into the bedroom and starts shoving his jeans back on. “Can’t find my shirt. Where’s my fucking shirt?” he grumbles as he finds it at the foot of the bed.

Harry sits up, looking at him with confusion spread across his face. “Lou? What are you doing?”

“I’m getting fucking dressed. That’s what I’m doing.”

“Why? Where are you going?”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Home. I called a taxi.”

“You could have spent the night. Didn’t you hear all the things I said? I’ve been wanting you for so long, Louis. I know it’s not the smartest idea for me, but I want to be with you.”

Louis snorts in reply as he puts his shoes on.

“Louis, do you understand what I’m saying? Why are you leaving? I want us to be together.”

Louis finally looks up at him, incredulously. “You think I would stay and be with you after what you’ve done to my best friend? Am I supposed to fall at your feet because you like me against your will? I could never be with someone like you. Even if I wanted you, do you really think I’d be tempted to be with you after what you’ve done to Zayn? I have every reason to think poorly of you. You can’t deny that you’re the reason Liam is back in Cheshire, and Zayn is at home fucking heartbroken. Can you? Can you deny that? Can you deny what you’ve done to Ben?”

As he says the last words, Harry jumps up from the bed, naked, angry. “No, I don’t deny that I did what I had to do to keep Liam away from Zayn. I’ve obviously been kinder to him than to myself. But you seem awfully interested in Ben’s well-being to bring him into this.”

“Who wouldn’t be after what you’ve done to him? Nearly ruining his career over your own petty demands.”

Harry runs a hand through his hair, agitated, as he paces back across the room. “So this is what you think of me? Thank you for explaining it so thoroughly. But maybe you’d overlook these supposed transgressions if your pride wasn’t hurt by my honest confession that I’ve tried to suppress my feelings for you. Maybe you’d feel differently had I flattered you with false praise and pretended that I had no reservations about being with you.”

Louis can feel the rage building at every moment. He tries his best to keep his composure. “You’re wrong. Nothing could have induced me to be with you, but I might have spared you some pity had you presented your feelings more kindly and less selfishly. You know what? You’re exactly who I thought you were. Long before I met you, I knew you were arrogant and conceited and had no care for other people’s feelings. And you have fully proven all of that now.”

“You can stop now. I perfectly understand what your feelings are towards me, and now I can only be sorry about what my own feelings have been.”

Louis whirls around and without looking back he strides toward the bedroom door and reaches for the knob. He pauses, facing the door, thinking about Harry’s words before he shakes his head. “How could I even be with you anyway, Harry? Did you think of that? You’re not out. We couldn’t really be together even if I _had_ wanted you.”

He opens the door and slams it behind him and storms from the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would say I'm sorry, but let's just remember this plot is Jane Austen's fault. So you can blame her for this.
> 
> Also, Nick buzzed his hair off today. I have many feels about this, but I will spare you the details for now. 
> 
> I'll have the next chapter up later tonight. I got my notes back from my beta, but I haven't had time to fix anything yet.


	8. Chapter 8

Louis wakes up in his own bed the next day a bit sore in places he’s not used to feeling sore. A not so lovely reminder that he’d fucked his nemesis last night. Or his nemesis had actually done the fucking, but whatever. Best not to think on that. 

What’s left to think about is Zayn. How much should he tell him about what he now knows? God, if that bloody idiot just hadn’t stuck his nose in where it wasn’t wanted, this all could have been avoided. He can’t think about this before he’s had his tea.

He wanders downstairs with his phone and starts checking his email as he waits for the kettle. What the fuck. There’s an email from Harry. His heart starts to pound. He’s afraid to open it. The email doesn’t have a subject. Who doesn’t write a subject? How’s he supposed to know if he should open it? Now his head is pounding, too. The kettle whistles and scares the shit out of him. He turns it off and looks back to his phone, staring at it like it’s a wild animal and he’s afraid to get too close. Okay, he has to read it. He knew he probably wouldn’t be able to go with his original plan of ignoring Harry for the rest of his life, but he didn’t think he’d have to alter the plan already. He taps on the email before he can change his mind.

                _Louis,_

_Hello. I got your email address from the label’s website. I hope seeing it in your inbox doesn’t upset you. Don’t worry. I’m not writing this to repeat my feelings for you that you found so abhorrent last night. I would not have sent you this if I didn’t feel it was necessary that you hear the truth and to be honest because I feel like I’ve been unjustly accused._

_You’ve accused me of two very different things, one much worse than the other. The first that I am the reason that Liam has separated himself from your friend, and the other that I had attempted to ruin a man’s career over petty things. I hope that you will better understand why I’ve done the things I’ve done, but I’m sorry if any of the things I say offends you._

_I know I am not the only one who saw that Liam was infatuated with Zayn from the first moment he met him, but as his friend I’ve seen him “in love” before and didn’t think much about where it would lead. That night at Alibi when I first kissed you is the night I became concerned.  I heard Niall mention how Liam was obviously in love with Zayn. Niall also mentioned in the same breath how much you all hoped to sign Liam. I watched them quite a bit that night, trying to determine Liam’s affection and how much Zayn returned it. Liam did seem much more in love than I’d ever seen him, but I just didn’t see the same level of attachment from Zayn in return. He seemed willing to receive Liam’s attention, but he didn’t seem particularly attached in my opinion. I concede I may be the one mistaken about Zayn’s affections for Liam as you’ve said that Zayn is heartbroken. If this is true, then I can see why you resent me for my interference. I would like to defend my opinion by saying that it was not based on only my own wishes, but rather the knowledge that Zayn could possibly have ulterior motives because of your label and what I saw as his lack of outward affection as well as his reputation for dating some of the most beautiful women in the world. I believed myself to be impartial. I have from the beginning been concerned that Liam was being swayed into signing with your label because of Zayn, and I strongly wanted him to base his future and his promising career on something more than Zayn’s pretty face. I hope I don’t cause offense, but your label has no track record yet. We all know you have a major artist, but we don’t know how that will turn out. Liam listened to my position on all this, and I don’t know that any of it would have persuaded him to return to Cheshire except for my observations to him that Zayn did not return his feelings. Liam relies on my judgement more than his own. It didn’t take much persuasion after that for him to return home. However, he is still very interested in 78 Records. I’ve convinced him to work on his music without distractions and wait for you to launch Ed’s album and see what happens. Everything I did was done with the best intentions to help my friend. If I have hurt your friend in the process, I did not do it purposely._

_As far as Ben goes I don’t know what he has accused me of particularly, but I can make a guess that he blames me for his lack of work from Sony that he had been previously relying on. I’ve already confided in you more than most of the people in my life about my secrets. Liam knows, and now you and Taylor know. I was confident that it would go no further than the three of you, and I was proven correct. My other close friends likely suspect it, but I have never confirmed anything to them. My record company knows because of Ben. During our video shoot, Ben lured me into a compromising situation. He had secretly set up recording equipment to capture it. He’s a handsome man, and I was flattered and young and naïve. He was smug when he showed me the video. He was sure I would pay him off immediately, but I was even more naïve than he suspected.  I think he must have been desperate for the money because he didn’t stop to consider the fact that I didn’t have the kind of money he was demanding. I went to my record label for help. I wanted to come out and then he would have no hold on me, but they convinced me that it wasn’t the right time. They paid off Ben for me. That’s why they blacklisted him as a director._

_This is the full story of the events you spoke of, and I hope that you at the very least no longer believe me to be cruel in regards to Ben. In the heat of the moment last night, I was not ready to decide what I ought to tell you. If you question the truth of anything I have written due to your dislike of me, you can contact Liam as he knows the full story of everything I have told you. He came with me for support when I spoke with my record company._

_I apologize for the length of this email, but I wanted the chance to defend myself. Perhaps if you’d just asked me, you could have formed your opinions with more of the facts._

_Harry_

The kettle has grown cold as Louis sits with his phone reading and rereading and thinking about Harry’s email. He had honestly had no idea what Harry’s email would contain, but it was not at all what he expected. Then again, he hadn’t seen much of any of this coming. He truly hadn’t believed there to be an explanation for Harry’s behavior. And yet, there perhaps was a bit of one. His belief about Zayn being indifferent was absurd though. And Harry’s thoughts on 78 Records and using Zayn to get to Liam were rage inducing. He certainly didn’t seem to regret pulling them apart.

But then he read the parts about Ben. He read and reread, hoping to find holes in the story. But eventually he had to concede that Harry’s story rang true. It even fit in with what Ben had relayed about himself. It became more and more clear that the things Ben had confided him in regards to Harry were inappropriate ones to relay about a client, even one you felt slighted by.  He had only known Ben an extremely short amount of time before Ben began bad mouthing Harry. And really he knew no good of Ben besides his ability to be charming. Harry had also said to contact Liam if he was unable to believe him. He wouldn’t have said that without being confident about what Liam would say. In the time he’d known Harry, it was true he’d never caught him in a lie. To be fair, he’d heard quite a lot of things to recommend Harry as a person. He spoke so affectionately of his sister. He had friends like Liam and Nick who quite doted on him. He was extremely well valued within his circle of friends. He had never seen Harry be petty or a diva or vindictive or any of the things Ben had said.

More thoughts began to creep in about Harry’s depiction of Zayn. It was true that many people found him a bit aloof. Fuck’s sake, Zayn’s whole persona in the band was that he was mysterious.

Louis groans. He gets up and throws himself on to the couch. He replays in his mind the terrible things he’d accused Harry of last night. He needs to confess his sins.

*

Zayn opens his door to an extremely agitated Louis. Louis brushes past him and walks through the entryway until he reaches a sitting area and flings himself onto the couch.

“Well, hello to you, too.”

Louis gives a muffled, “Hi,” from the cushions.

“Uh, so Nick’s party? Did it not go so well? Or?”

Louis sits up. He taps at his phone, opening up Harry’s email. He wordlessly hands it to Zayn. “You got an email from Harry?” He begins reading it. “Wait, wait, wait, he says he told you he had feelings for you? And that you found them,” he looks back at the phone, “abhorrent?”

“Ugh. Yes, right after we had sex.”

“YOU HAD SEX WITH HARRY?!”

“Oh, right. Maybe I should have led with that instead of the email.”

“What the hell is going on Lou?!”

“Nothing good, I can promise you.”

Zayn sits down next to him. “Damn, I’m afraid to keep reading. Why don’t you just sit up and tell me what happened.”

Louis sits up with a guilty look on his face. “I just want to start with the fact that I’m really, really sorry about all this.”

“Fuck’s sake, Lou. Just talk.”

“Okay, well, so I went to the party. And it was fun, you know? More fun than I thought it would be anyway. Nick is pretty great. Anyway, after it, some of us went to Harry’s house. And everyone kind of left, and then I yelled at Harry for something, and then we sort of had sex--”

“Sort of?”

“Fine, Zayn. We definitely had sex,” Louis says. “Anyway, after we had sex I kind of accused him of some stuff that maybe turned out not to be the whole truth, and that’s why he wrote me a long ass email.”

“What did you accuse him of?”

“Well, for one I may have said he tried to ruin Ben’s career.”

“Okay, why did you say that?” Zayn asks patiently.

“Uh, well, Ben sort of told me that’s what happened, but that turned out not to really be the truth, I don’t think. Turns out Ben is a giant wanker who blackmailed Harry about being gay. Or bi. Or not straight. I still don’t actually know. He didn’t really say. ‘Course maybe he wasn’t in the mood to specify after I falsely accused him of shit and told him I think he’s arrogant and conceited and selfish. ”

“Oh, Lou. I’m almost afraid to ask, but at what point did Harry say he had feelings for you?”

Louis scrunches up his face. “Before. During. After. But it was a bit shit, you know? Telling me how much he wishes he didn’t want me. How he wants to be with me even though it’s not a good idea. He was so sure I was going to fall at his feet, happy to just have his attention however unwillingly given.”

“Well, yeah, that is a bit shit. If he was that sure about you though, he’s probably pretty fucking disappointed you ended up telling him how awful you think he is.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he’s rethinking how he feels about me today.”

Zayn smiles sadly. “I doubt it’s that easy, Lou.”

“So you blame me then? For believing Ben and accusing Harry?”

“No! I don’t think you were so wrong in saying all that. You just made the mistake of trusting someone who seemed like a decent person. Really, Louis. We were all a bit charmed by Ben. I guess you kind of regret saying it all so strongly though.”

“Yeah, wish I hadn’t thought I was so clever talking shit about Harry for stupid reasons and stupid grudges.  Anyway, I sort of need your opinion about all this. Should we tell anyone what we know about Ben being a complete arsehole?”

Zayn thinks for a bit. “I don’t know if that’s really necessary. What do you think?”

Louis frowns. “I think Harry didn’t really say whether or not to say anything, but I’m afraid any explanation about Ben leads to Harry being outed. I guess it’s just best I not say anything for now.”

“I think you’re right. Maybe Ben is a bit sorry about what he did. Maybe he’s trying to rebuild himself now.” Zayn pauses. “So this whole argument was about Ben then?”

“Ehm, no. Actually, the first thing I yelled at him about was you.”

Zayn frowns. “Why would you yell at him about me?”

Louis grimaces and rubs the back of his neck. “Nick said something to me that led me to believe Harry is the reason Liam went back to Cheshire.”

Zayn’s face hardens. “So what Louis? It doesn’t really matter why he went back to Cheshire.”

“Doesn’t it? Harry told Liam you weren’t interested in him romantically.”

Zayn freezes. “Oh. Uh, why would he—Not that it—I never—Fuck.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Zayn composes himself. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter.”

“Zayn! I really think the only reason Liam left is because he let Harry persuade him you weren’t interested, when clearly you are. If you’re in love with him, you need to text him. Contact him, Zayn. Let him know that you are interested and that Harry was wrong.”

A flicker of hope crosses Zayn’s face before it vanishes. “No, if he cared at all he never would have let Harry influence him like that. Maybe Harry could see that, too. That Liam wasn’t really that interested.”

“Wait, what? How the hell did you get that from what I said? The way Harry explained it, I could see how he misinterpreted things. I think Liam is still a bit intimidated by the idea that THE Zayn Malik would even speak to him much less want to be his boyfriend. Harry even threw Perrie and Gigi into his argument.”

“What the hell do they have to do with it?”

“Just that you have in the past dated some famously beautiful women. Listen, do you need to be reminded that many people find you terrifying?  Because fine, I will tell you again. Zayn, you beautiful idiot, you can be terrifying to people who want to suck your dick.”

Zayn hits him with a pillow. “Oh my god. Shut up.”

“So are you going to call him?”

Zayn answers with a question. “Do you know what the last thing I said to him was?”

“No. What was it?”

“I was helping you flee The Alibi, and I wanted to say goodbye to him. But he was with Harry. So I texted him that I’d had a great night with him and to call me in the morning about getting breakfast.”

Louis remains silent.

“That was it. He never responded. Just left for Cheshire. So no, I’m not going to call him. You say he was afraid it was one sided, but it really was, Lou. It was me. I’m the one who wanted more, not him.” Louis starts to protest. “Lou, I’m warning you. Just leave it alone, okay? I’ll go make you some tea.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does 'Dangerous Woman' haunt anyone else the way it haunts me? I think my local radio stations are obsessed with it or something because I hear it multiple times a day. Every damn day for weeks. Is it that popular? Maybe it's that popular. I need to hear Harry sing it. Blah. This has nothing to do with this chapter. I just had to get it out, and you're the only ones who'd understand why it haunts me. Sorry. xx

Louis has stopped bringing up Liam. Honestly, he has no idea what to do. Liam is still their most promising new find, but Zayn’s feelings definitely throw a wrench into their plans for Liam. He’s still thinking about it as he walks back into the office from a meeting about Ed’s tour when he finds a surprise in his office. “Hiya, Louis! Your P.A. said it was alright to come back here to wait for you,” Ben says as he stands up to greet him.

“Oh. Hi, Ben. Have you been waiting long? I’ve been in meetings all morning.”

Ben smiles charmingly. “Oh, a while I guess. Never too long to wait for you though.”

Louis attempts to control himself from rolling his eyes. “Right. So anyway, did you need something?”

Ben flushes a bit. “Oh, no, just thought I’d drop by. See if you wanted to get something to eat maybe.”

“I don’t know. I have a lot of work to do,” Louis says as Niall walks past the open door.

“Well, we’ve all got to eat, don’t we?” Niall declares. “I know a place.”

Since Niall is deciding for them on lunch, they are of course at a pub. They order pints with their food. Niall chatters away with Ben. Louis doesn’t have much to say, which garners more than a few looks from Ben. When Niall goes to the bar to get another pint, Ben tries to strike up more of a conversation. “So I saw photos of you at Simon Cowell’s charity auction last week.”

“Yes. I went with Corden.”

“Ah. Of course,” Ben smiles.  “Saw you in some photos with him.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of photos of me from that night out there.”

Ben looks a little uncomfortable, but Louis continues. “Talked to Nick Grimshaw that night. Been hanging round with him a bit and his mates.”

“Really?” Ben looks decidedly displeased.  “He’s quite good friends with Harry.”

“Quite.”

Ben shifts in his seat. “Nick’s a good guy. He behaves quite different from Harry though, wouldn’t you say?”

“Very different, yes, but my opinion of Harry has improved quite a bit since I’ve grown to know him a little better.”

Ben’s alarm is palpable now. “Really? Has he decided to try to appear less of a diva?”

“I think I would just say that the better I know him, the more I understand him.”

Ben is flustered, but he tries to recover. “Well, you know what I think of him, but I’m glad to see he is at least trying to appear to be decent to people in public.”

“Sure.” Louis nods.

“Anyway, I know you already have someone for Ed’s first video off the album, but just let me know if it doesn’t work out. I have something really huge coming up if everything works out, but otherwise I’d be available for that. Or really anything like that for a while until this other project comes through.”

Louis says something noncommittal. He’s pretty sure he knows why Ben stopped by today. He must need the work. Niall comes back to the table, and the conversation flows again. Ben tries to steer it far from Louis’ personal life.

*

78 Records is having a busy week. They are working on the launch, of course. They’re hammering out details about Ed’s upcoming tour. There’s some breathing room between dates in case they have to add more in each city. Louis suspects they’ll be adding a lot more dates after Ed’s album is released. Maybe they need bigger venues even once the tour gets going. He’s got all the upcoming appearances scheduled in the U.K. and most of his appearances in the U.S. as well. Still waiting to hear back from Jimmy Fallon’s people whether they’re doing an interview or just a musical guest appearance.

Louis has been having a lot of long nights, so he’s really looking forward to a nice few days away in Cheshire with Julia and the Corden children. He’s had no further communications with Harry, but the thought did come to mind that surely he wouldn’t cross paths with him in Cheshire. Harry will most likely stay in London and never know Louis was ever in Cheshire. Unless he happened to check in on Liam, it seems unlikely.

The few hours it takes to get to the Corden’s home gives Louis just a little too much time to think. By the time he gets there, he’s a bit on edge. He knows it’s a bit silly, but it feels a bit like he’s invading Harry’s territory. It’s just absurd to think this way, not like Harry owns all of Cheshire. He doesn’t even know if Harry lives near the same town as James. He does vaguely recall James once talking about where Harry lives though. He can’t remember what he said about it, and he certainly isn’t going to call him and ask.

He pulls up to a charming, brick home. There’s a lovely garden in which the children are playing, and he can see Julia chasing the youngest. He breathes deeply and sighs out some of the tension he didn’t realize was there. He walks out through the grass until Julia spots him. She snatches up Carey before she can dart away again and carries her over to meet Louis half way. “Louis! Love, I’m so glad you came!” she hugs him as best she can with a squirming toddler in her arms. “Carey, can you say hello to Louis?”

“ ‘lo,” she murmurs before tucking her face into her mother’s shoulder.

“Hello, Carey. Do you want to see how far I can kick that ball?” Carey perks up.

“Yes, You-ye! Kick the ball!”

 Louis place kicks the ball as far as he can as Max wanders over from playing with his cars.

“You-ye! Yay!” Carey dissolves into giggles at how far Louis can kick the ball. Max runs to fetch it.

Julia smiles. “Well, you’ve already won the kids over.”

Louis grins back. “Thanks for letting me come.”

“Letting you? More like begging you to come. I could use the adult conversation if I’m honest. I’m a bit tired of talking about lizards and princesses and the combination of both.”

“Max, you’re mum’s gone daft! She doesn’t want to talk about lizards anymore. What else is there to talk about besides lizards?”

“I don’t know.” Max shakes his head in disgust.

Julia laughs. “Lou, if you don’t mind staying out here with them for a minute, I’ll go pour you some lemonade.”

“Thanks, Julia.” She smiles in response and heads into the house.

She quickly returns. “I almost lost track of time. Louis, we’ve all been invited over to a friend’s house this evening. I hope you’ll join us. It’s very casual. The kids are invited, too. We have an hour before we need to leave if you want to freshen up a bit.”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks. I’ll go clean up.”

*

Louis hadn’t really planned on any outings this weekend, but he does have some decent jeans and a soft, white long sleeve shirt.  The few buttons at the neck make it a bit more acceptable than a tee shirt. It’s of course a bit long in the sleeves, so he scrunches them up nearly to his elbows. He chuckles remembering Nick and the sweater paws incident. He’s really enjoying getting to know Nick. He’s clever and funny and cute and to be honest Louis is quite charmed by him. Why not him? Why had he not asked Nick out instead of hooking up with Harry? It hadn’t even felt like an option, and that’s a bit perplexing. He’s pretty sure Nick was interested at least at some point, but Harry was always there, hovering in the back of his mind even when he wasn’t hovering in person.

“So where to then?” Louis says as he hops into the car and takes a drink of water from a bottle.

“Oh, my friend Catherine’s invited us round. It’ll be just us and the kids. Her husband is out of town, and I said we’d come chat. Max has a lot of fun there with her boy, don’t you, Max?”

“Yeah. He’s got loads of trains.”

Louis turns around to look at Max. “He sounds ace then.”

“We should be there in about fifteen minutes. They live in a lovely little area. Quite a lot of land really. It reaches out to a pond at the back. It divides the property a bit between theirs and Harry Styles’ property.”

Louis’ most recent gulp of water spits all over the dash. “Oh my god,” he coughs out. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Well, someone did say they notice I choke a lot, but I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Maybe you should see a doctor.”

Louis suspects the cure is to move to another continent where they’ve never heard of Harry Styles. Maybe Antarctica. No, he’s sure there’s some scientist there who’s seen the YouTube video of Harry singing ‘Dangerous Woman’. “Yeah, maybe,” he sighs in answer.

He tries to stay calm. It’s just the neighbor’s house. It’s not like Harry is even home anyway. Surely, he’s still in London. Possibly, Liam is there, but that’s it. He feels better by the time they arrive at Catherine’s home.

She welcomes them in and jokes about being quite happy to have a pop star in the house. She hands Louis a glass of wine. “Just having you on, Louis. Quite used to having musicians in the house. I don’t know if Julia’s said, but Harry Styles lives just behind us here. Our families have been friends for a very long time. That’s why he got that house actually! I let him know when it was for sale.”

Julia looks at Louis curiously. “I’m out of the loop on most things these days, but aren’t the two of you friends?”

Louis colours. “Ehm, we know each other a little I’d say, not sure I’d call us—“

Catherine gasps. “Oh, that’s right! Larry Stylinson! Well, so you do know him then! Well, I can see why you too became such fast friends. Harry’s so easy to be with and talk to. I don’t believe we’ve ever had a cross word between us, and I’ve known him since he was four years old!”

Louis’ curiosity awakens at the knowledge that Catherine has known Harry for such a long time. “That’s quite amazing. To have such a long friendship without disagreements.”

“Oh, that’s mostly due to Harry, I’m afraid. He’s always been so sweet and generous. Hard to argue with, really.” Louis raises his eyebrows to this. He’s had no problem arguing with Harry. Catherine continues, “He’s just got such a kind heart. Always thinking of others instead of himself.”

Catherine stops the conversation to check on the children and bring in some food for their small party. Louis is both afraid she’s finished speaking of Harry and afraid she’ll continue to speak about him.

When she returns, she and Julia begin a new conversation about L.A., but the conversation finds its way back to Harry. “I’m so glad you like L.A. even though we miss you here dreadfully. Gemma quite likes it there as well. I’ve always thought it wonderful that Harry found a way to both help his sister and her career by supporting her charity work there. He’d do absolutely anything for her. I know some people think him proud or standoffish, but truly he’s just a bit private, really. He gives so much of himself. It’s only right that he keep a small bit for himself, don’t you think?”

Julia and Louis both murmur their agreement. He’d known he’d had Harry a bit wrong after receiving his email, but this, all this, from a person who’s known Harry all his life, has shifted his thinking much more. Louis contemplates all the times Harry seemed to let down his guard with him. For such a private man to have done so means quite a lot now that he thinks on it. He’s a bit ashamed that he let some petty past grudges about an interview two years ago colour his entire opinion of Harry. So many people rely on Harry for his help and his opinion and his love. His sister, his friends, his charities. He suddenly feels like he needs to be alone. He needs to think about all this. His mind keeps spinning in circles. “Mind if I take a walk? Get a bit of fresh air. Been traveling quite a lot today.”

Catherine answers cheerfully. “Of course, Louis! The grounds are my favourite thing about this place. Maybe take a walk down by the pond. Quite lovely if I do say so myself.”

 Louis quietly walks outside and down a grassy lawn towards the pond Catherine spoke of. He tries to concentrate, but his thoughts scatter around him. The sun has begun to set as twilight approaches. He looks up as he reaches a small tree near the pond. He leans against it as he examines the tall grass surrounding the water’s edge and a rocky path that leads up to the rear of a large white house. It’s quite an interesting house. Large wooden pillars support multiple sun rooms and a large deck on either side of the rooms. A small arbor tangled with vines overlooks another path leading towards a small out building. Louis wonders if that’s Harry’s studio.

“Hello.”

Louis’ heart stops as he whips his head around towards the sound. Harry is standing at the end of the path across the pond. Louis can feel his face burning as he stares back at Harry. “Hi.”

A long uncomfortable moment passes in which Louis can see Harry’s face has turned an unfortunate shade of red. Harry finally breaks the silence. “How are you?”

“Fine. I’m fine,” Louis’ voice cracks, and he wishes the ground beneath him would open up and swallow him whole. He’s fairly certain he’s never been so embarrassed in all his life. How in holy hell had he ended up in Harry’s backyard? How bizarre it must seem to him. It must look as though he’s come purposely to throw himself in Harry’s way again. He’s never wanted to run away from a situation more than the one at this very moment. He turns away, unsure what to even do at this point.

“Wait!” Harry calls out. “Just a minute. Please.”  He begins the short walk around the pond. He walks quickly as though Louis may bolt before he makes it to the other side. He stops short of Louis by about five feet as though he’s afraid to get too close. They look at each other uncomfortably for a moment before Harry blurts out, “I can see your tattoos through your shirt.” He gasps and then covers his mouth with his hands as though to push his unfortunate words back into his mouth. “I mean, I meant how is the label? How is Ed? And Zayn? I hope they’re well.”

Louis answers mechanically. “They’re well. Things are going well for the launch next week.”

“Oh. Good. That’s good.”

“Yes. Ehm, so I’m just here visiting Catherine. Well, not Catherine, but Julia. James’ wife, Julia. But they’re friends. So I’m visiting her, but then we came here.” Oh dear god, what the hell is he saying? He’s rambling like an idiot, and he can’t stop himself. “Max likes to play with Catherine’s boy. Trains. They both like trains. Don’t remember if I liked trains so much as a boy. I think I was more into football. I didn’t know you’d be here. London. I thought you were in London. Never met Catherine before tonight. I didn’t realize Julia was bringing me so close to your house. How’s Liam? Is he here? I should probably get back to the house. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

 He’s just made such an utter fool of himself that he feels he has no choice but to turn and start walking back towards Catherine’s house.

“You weren’t bothering me,” Harry calls out to Louis’ retreating figure.

Even if that’s true, Louis can’t help but call out, “Sorry!” over his shoulder as he escapes back into Catherine’s house.

He closes the glass door behind him firmly and slumps against it. Then, he remembers Harry could still be out there and be seeing this, so he quickly finds his way back to the sitting area. He sinks into a chair. Both women turn to look at him. “Louis? Are you alright?”

“Yes. I, ehm, ran into Harry back there. Didn’t realize he was here in Cheshire.”

Catherine frowns. “Oh? Yes, he’s just got back. Home to visit Gemma, I’d imagine. She just returned from L.A. yesterday.”

The doorbell chimes, and Louis nearly jumps out of his skin. Catherine wonders aloud who it could be as she crosses out into the entryway. Louis recognizes Harry’s deep voice as he greets Catherine, and he wonders if it’s possible to literally die of shame. Julia is looking at him peculiarly when Catherine enters the room with Harry. “Look who’s come to visit!” Julia and Catherine both look expectantly at Louis.

“Hiya, Harry. Been an age.”

Harry laughs. “Yes, maybe five entire minutes.” He turns to Julia. “I don’t believe we’ve ever met. I’m Harry Styles. I know your husband, of course, but I’m a big fan of all your philanthropic work as well. Gemma has mentioned your recent efforts on several occasions.”

Julia looks pleased. “Thank you. So nice to finally meet you Harry. Catherine’s been singing your praises all evening, and I’ve been a fan of your music from the start actually.”

 Harry’s eyes dart to Louis. “Has she really? Catherine exaggerates horribly just so you know. Terrible habit she picked up as a child.” Catherine thwaps him on the arm. Harry just smiles.

“I actually just came by to invite you all over tomorrow evening. I have guests you already know, Louis. Liam and Taylor have been staying with me. And my sister just returned home yesterday, and I know she would love to meet you.” He quickly adds, “And you as well Julia. Of course. And Catherine, you know you and the children are always welcome.”

Julia looks to Louis for affirmation he would like to accept the invitation, so he’s forced to answer. “Of course. I’d love to meet your sister. And see Liam and Taylor. If Julia doesn’t have plans for us that is.”

Julia looks as confused as Louis feels, but answers, “No, that should be fine for us. We’d love to come, Harry.” Louis knows he’ll be getting interrogated tonight.

“Great, well, I’ll see you all tomorrow then,” he says as Catherine leads him back to the door.

“What the hell was that about?” Julia whispers. “You could cut the tension with a knife.”

Louis just smiles weakly and sinks back further into the chair.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep wanting to edit this chapter more. I'm going to go ahead and post it since I've already waited an extra day, but I make no promises that I won't go back and mess with this in the future.

As Julia put the kids to bed Louis wants nothing more than to crawl into his own and hide under the covers. He throws himself across the bed. His mind refuses to settle between mortification and pleasure. He hadn’t even known it was possible to feel both simultaneously. He knows he will have no time to figure anything out though because he’s about to be thoroughly questioned by Julia and he has no idea how to answer any of her questions whatever they might be.

He’s still unprepared for her first one.

“Are you shagging Harry Styles?”

Louis coughs.

“You should really get that cough checked out.”

“Yeah, I think I should.”

“Louis?”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to answer the question?”

“No.”

“No, you’re not going to answer the question? Or no you’re not sleeping with him.”

“I’ve not technically _slept_ with him.”

Louis is now being faced with a look that only mothers and teachers give. The one that says, I know you’re lying, come to me when you can tell the truth. He really hates that look.

“Julia, I don’t know what you want me to say.”

She sighs and lays down on the bed next to him. “I didn’t know he was gay.”

Louis stays silent.

“I suppose it wouldn’t be right to out someone. I won’t pressure you into saying anything. I obviously have no idea what’s been going on. Just be careful, okay, Lou? I don’t want you to get hurt. You didn’t come out just to hide again.” She sighs and kisses him on the forehead before she gets up and walks to the door.

“Lou?” He turns his head to face her.

 “He seems nice” she says and smiles before closing the door.

*

Louis has resorted to pacing the room in his pants.

He’s been on edge all day. The hours seem to have flown by so quickly. He’d played with the children and taken them for a walk whilst Julia ran errands. Suddenly, it was nearly time to leave for Harry’s, and he realizes he’s got nothing to wear. Well, nothing impressive anyway. He tries not to dwell on why he wants to look impressive. His packing skills have always left something to be desired as in he has grabbed a few random things from his closet and stuffed them into a suitcase. He finds a red and white striped shirt at the bottom probably from the last time he used this suitcase. He sniffs it to be sure it’s fine. He is meeting a new person, so he wants to at least look presentable. That’s all. That’s why. He decides to just wear the skinny black jeans he wore last night because it appears he’s only packed joggers besides the jeans he currently has on. He does try to style his fringe a bit.

Julia’s hired a sitter for the night, so they kiss the children good-bye and head out. As they pull up to the house, Julia turns to Louis. “You seem a bit nervous.”

“What? No. I’m fine. Not nervous at all. Haha!”

Julia raises an eyebrow. “You just fake laughed.”

“Did not.”

“You actually said the words ‘ha ha’ instead of laughing.”

“Well, someone’s a bit picky.”

“Are you going to get out of the car now?”

“Oh. Right.” He slowly opens the door and steps out and adjusts his clothing a bit.

Julia grins. “You look fine, Lou. Honestly.”

“I look like a sailor or a pirate or summat in this. But a bit late to change innit?”

Julia takes his arm and guides him along. The door chimes for only a few seconds before the door is wrenched open by Harry. He looks beautiful is Louis’ first thought as Harry nervously runs a hand through his curls and ushers them inside. Louis follows behind him, his eyes straying to Harry’s broad shoulders. Oh god, he thinks. Don’t think about his shoulders and how you’ve touched his bare skin. He pleads with himself to think of something else and instead focuses on Harry’s shirt as Harry leads them through a short tour of the house. Light blue button up with a small white pattern. “Do you have bees on your shirt?” Damn it. He’s said that out loud.

Harry stops so suddenly that Louis has to reach out to touch him to keep from running right into him. He flings his hands away as though burned. “Yes. They’re bees. Actually, this shirt is—“

“No, let me guess. It’s Gucci. I’ll make sure to have tissues handy if your nose gets twitchy.”

Harry laughs. “It is though. Really. It’s Gucci. And no, I’ll not be wiping my nose on the sleeve of this shirt either.”

Julia looks at them both strangely, and they immediately sober up. “Everyone is in the sun room,” Harry announces as he opens the door to a still brightly lit glass room. Harry immediately draws Louis near to a lovely young woman with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Louis, this is my sister Gemma. Gemma, this is Louis.” He leaves Louis with Gemma as he introduces Julia to his other guests.

“Nice to meet you, Louis. Haz has talked a lot about you—I mean your label. But I’m not one to talk about music so much. I’ll have to pick your brain about my upcoming fundraiser though. I saw what a smashing job you did with the Believe in Magic ball.”

Harry has disappeared from the room, but Liam interrupts them to greet Louis with enthusiasm. Louis can feel any residual anger at him melt away. Liam asks after all their mutual friends in London very generally, notably not specifying any one person. Taylor tries to sway the conversation her way, but Gemma determinedly stays in close conversation with Louis and Julia about their charity work. Louis tries to pay attention as to whether Liam and Gemma seemed to share a tight bond, but it truly appears they are merely friendly with one another, the way you would be with someone you’d known for a long while.

Harry reappears and ushers them into the dining room. He’s prepared a few courses for them. He brings round bruschetta first, but it looks fancier all green with beans and some kind of tangy cheese. Harry watches them all closely to see if they like it, so Louis feels the need to eat more than one. They are rather tasty though. Next, he brings round a giant wood platter with meat and vegetables all over it.

“I thought we could make our own kebabs!” Harry says excitedly. “I modified one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes a bit for this.” The roast pork is carved and fanned out carefully around the edge. Vegetables and fruits and greens are placed in patterns over the platter.

Louis looks at the platter doubtfully.  “I’m afraid to mess up your poshy kebabs, Harold.”

Harry lets out a loud bark of a laugh. “Sorry. It’s just that’s what it’s actually called. The kebabs. The recipe was for ‘Posh Pork Kebabs.’ “

Gemma is looking at Harry in amazement. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that noise come out of you before, Haz. Or really anyone if I’m honest.”

Harry looks a bit chagrined and folds himself back into his chair. Louis tries to draw the attention back to himself. “Well, I’m going to just have at it then. Looks delicious,” he says as he loads up his plate. Everyone else follows suit. He looks back at Harry who has a small smile on his face as he meets Louis’ eye across the table.

Seated next to Louis, Liam engages him in conversation for most of the dinner. “I’ve been missing London quite a bit these last few weeks. Been concentrating on my music, but I can’t say I don’t miss the life there.”

“It has been awhile, mate.”

“Yeah, four and half weeks since we were at The Alibi.”

“Really? That’s quite exact, Liam.”

Liam flushes a bit. “Well, I have a lot of time to think when I’m writing.”

Catherine helps Harry clear away the dishes before Harry comes back with a chocolate tart topped with raspberries and drizzled with a raspberry sauce. They ooh and ahh appropriately as Harry cuts them each a slice. Louis doesn’t realize Harry is watching him until he scrapes all the sauce and raspberries off his piece.

“What are you doing to that?”

Louis looks up. “Oh. Ehm. Well, don’t really want fruit with me chocolate. Sorry.”

Harry frowns. “You always insult my desserts.”

Louis’ eyes crinkle with his smile. “You didn’t try to put pepper or summat in this did you? Before I take a bite I’d like full disclosure.”

Liam laughs as he’s in on the joke, but the rest of the table just watches, fascinated by what is transpiring. The small party continues. With Gemma on one side and Liam on another, Louis speaks mostly with them, but he watches Harry surreptitiously. Harry asks questions and listens intently and thoughtfully engages even with Julia whom he hardly knows. He doesn’t seem to mind Julia’s stories and puts her at ease when she realizes how many stories she’s told about her children. “Please don’t apologize for speaking about your children. I obviously don’t have any of my own, but I imagine something as important as being a parent quite overshadows many things in someone’s life. I would hope that would be the case with any parent. I know I plan to do the same when I have my own someday,” he reassures with a lovely, dimpled smile.

Liam recaptures Louis’ attention when he begins asking questions about their mutual friends. “So how is everyone at 78 doing?”

“Well, I’d say. Very busy of course with Ed’s launch coming up, but it’s handled for right now. We know how to pull off a record launch.”

“Oh, of course! I hope you all know that I’m still very interested in the label. I needed to get away and wrap my mind around a few things is all, but I’ve been working on a few songs. I’d love for you to hear them when I get back to London.”

“Love to, mate. I can speak for all of us when I say we are extremely happy you’re still considering signing with us.”

Louis speaks to Liam, but he continues to watch Harry out of the corner of his eye. He notices when Harry begins clearing away dishes with Taylor’s help. After they’ve stepped out of the room, Catherine follows with the tray of leftover tart, hoping to get a private word with Harry. As she nears the kitchen she stops as she hears Taylor speaking about someone.

“I can hardly believe how different he looks just since the last time I saw him. I guess all those late nights are catching up to him. I never could understand what everyone else sees in him. I know people find his eyes to be so amazing, but I never thought so. They’re just a plain blue, and they’re too expressive. You can always tell when he’s annoyed. Just leaves no mystery at all. And I just can’t stand that sassy look he gives with them.

Catherine nearly laughs at this depiction. She definitely knows who Taylor is describing. Catherine wonders why Taylor would say all this to a man who clearly has some kind of preference for Louis. Jealousy and anger seem to be the most likely cause.

Taylor continues. “Remember the night we first met him?  You didn’t seem too impressed with him that night.”

Catherine finally hears Harry’s voice. It seems he’s heard his limit about Louis. “For quite a while now, I have considered him to be outrageously handsome. As for his eyes, I had found them to generally be a cobalt blue color until I had the opportunity to look more closely and found them to be as many shades of blue and green as the sea.”

Catherine hears footsteps, so she jolts forward into the room. Harry thanks her for bringing in the tray as he walks back to his other guests. He watches Louis and his sister speak for a moment before walking over to speak with Liam.

Louis has been speaking at length with Gemma about Believe in Magic when Julia expresses the need to depart for home. “My children are my alarm clocks unfortunately, and there’s no snooze button. Harry, my offer still stands if you’re serious. And whichever of your friends who’d like to join you.”

Harry walks them to the door as Julia continues. “I had such a wonderful time tonight. Thank you for inviting me along. I don’t generally get many nights out without the kids.”

“You’re very welcome. It was lovely to meet you.”

“Oh, I’ve forgotten to give you my address for tomorrow! You can ask Catherine for it later, I suppose.”

“No worries. I’ll text Louis for it tomorrow.”

Louis didn’t realize Harry even had his phone number, but okay.

 Louis looks at them curiously, but he refrains from asking until they reach the car what Julia has invited Harry to do.

“Well, I assume he just wants to spend more time with you, but he mentioned bringing Gemma round tomorrow to discuss my involvement with Save the Children. He said he’d play with the children whilst Gemma and I talked.” Julia waggles her eyebrows.  “I would guess he’s imagining the two of you playing house with my kids.”

“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

Julia laughs. “I know I said to be careful, and I do mean that, Lou. But he is quite a lovely person, isn’t he? I can see why those who know him care about him so much.”

Louis says nothing.

*

Louis stays awake long into the night.

He’s had no time to wrap his mind around all that’s happened. The first thing he decides is that he no longer hates Harry. Did he ever? Was it always more just that he’d held a grudge? He feels pretty silly about it all now. Maybe even ashamed that he has overlooked Harry’s good qualities in favour of stubbornly clinging to something that happened years ago before they’d ever known each other. Nothing Harry has said since has been truly out of line. The things he heard when he eavesdropped on him the night they met were not things he was ever supposed to hear, and he’s let that colour his judgment as well. His own pride has punished Harry for a private conversation that was held in the heat of the moment. The things Harry has said about the label and Liam have truth to them. Liam perhaps was being swayed by his interest in Zayn, and 78 Records doesn’t have a track record yet. Harry’s advice to Liam has been to protect his friend and even though he was wrong about Zayn he’s not completely off about the label. Of course, Louis intends to prove his label’s worth, but he hasn’t had his chance to do that yet.

Louis’ face burns as he recalls Harry’s off handed comment about Louis’ looks not tempting him. He wonders how much he’s been punishing Harry for that comment. Clearly, Harry has long ago changed his mind about that.

And now, Harry has gone out of his way to show he has no ill will towards him, even after Louis’ rejection. Louis winces as he remembers all the unjust accusations and bitterness his rejection held. Instead of avoiding him at all costs, Harry has happily introduced him to his sister and garnered the good opinion of his friend and has attempted to make any time spent together as comfortable as possible. But how far does this go? Is he simply trying to prove Louis wrong? Or is it something more? Is he trying to show his feelings haven’t changed? And how should he feel about that?

“ ‘Lo.”

“Hi.” Louis pauses.

“Have you called me at one the morning to just say hi? Because then I’m hanging up.”

“No, Zayn. I’m having a crisis.”

Zayn sighs. “Of course you are.”

“I’m at Julia’s.”

“Yes, I know. And?”

“And I’ve seen Harry.”

“Oh. Jesus. Okay, I’m sitting up now. What have you done?”

“What have I done? What have _I_ done? Why would it be me who’s done something?”

“Lou. Give me a fucking break okay? Just explain what you’ve done.”

“Well, I sort of somehow ended up in his backyard? Accidentally?”

“What the fuck, Lou.”

“I know! I swear, it was a terrible accident! But ehm, anyway, he was actually quite nice about it. And he sort of invited Julia and I and her friend who I guess happens to be his friend as well to dinner at his house. And he was very nice and lovely and introduced me to his sister who is fucking amazing and he gets along with Julia and he made this fancy dinner and he’s coming over tomorrow to watch Julia’s kids with me.”

“I…okay.”

“Seriously? That’s all you’ve got to say about that?”

“No, I’m just thinking. Calm down.”

Louis impatiently waits for an entire minute before exploding. “Say something, fuck’s sake!”

“So sorry I’m not at my peak mental capacity after you’ve woken me up out of a dead sleep.” Before Louis can say anything, Zayn continues. “Lou, I think what matters most here is how you feel about Harry. I’m assuming if you’re calling me in the middle of the night you must be feeling something.”

“But what does it matter if I feel something now? I rejected him in the most horrible way possible. He can’t possibly feel the same as he did then.”

Zayn sighs. “Lou, everything you just said happened doesn’t support that theory. He found you lurking in his backyard and instead of yelling at you or ignoring you, he invites you and your friend he doesn’t know to dinner at his home and then actually cooks the meal himself. And then offers to baby sit to spend even more time with you. Mate, you’re going to have to figure out how you feel. I realize your crisis isn’t over, but I’m going back to sleep. G’night.”

Louis hears the click of Zayn hanging up. He tries to go to sleep after that, but he drifts in and out of dreams of bees swarming around him but never stinging.

 


	11. Chapter 11

After a restless night of sleep Louis wakes up late to a text from Harry:

                _Hello. Just checking in for Julia’s address. Also, I wanted to let you both know that Liam will be coming with Gemma and I. He didn’t feel he had enough time to talk with you yesterday and wants to catch up more._

Louis texts back Julia’s address as well as that he was looking forward to talking with Liam again.

When Louis opens the door a few hours later, he looks in shock at Harry. He’s dressed so casually, in joggers and Nikes and a long sleeved tee with a snapback atop his curls. He snaps out of it when Gemma waves a hand in front of his face.

“Hello! Yes, I know, my brother looks different out of his blouses and jeggings. Surely, you didn’t expect him to wear that to watch children.”

“Actually, I did, I think. Never seen him in anything else.”

Harry speaks up. “You know, I can hear you both as I’m standing right here.”

Louis ushers them all into the house. “Sure, sure. Come on in. Kids are out back in the garden. Gemma, Julia said to meet her in the sitting room right there.”

Harry immediately begins a game of horseshoes with the children as Liam inquires after their mutual friends back in London.

“So tell me all about the record launch for Ed. How is everyone? Tell me all about what everyone’s been doing!"

Louis smiles slyly at Liam. “Oh, Niall is fine. Been helping organize the tour mostly. Luke and I have been working with Ed’s management on booking telly appearances. Oh, he’s going to do Live Lounge, so that’s exciting. I guess that’s it. Can’t think of anyone else you might want to know about.”

Liam searches the sky for answers. “Fine. I’ll ask. How’s Zayn?”

“Oh, Zayn! Right, right. He’s been working with the video director to edit the video and app for it. Otherwise, fine, I guess. He doesn’t go out much—“

Liam interrupts. “I wondered about that! I haven’t seen any photos of him at all.” He stops abruptly realizing too late how that sounds.

Louis tries not to laugh. “Really? Yes, he’s kept to himself mostly. You know, probably for the last four and a half weeks or so.”

Liam’s face falls a bit. “Oh.” Louis misses the look on Liam’s face. He’s been watching Harry play with the kids. Carey is now riding him like a horse. “Ohhhh,” Liam says again in a very different tone.

Louis’ attention snaps back to Liam’s smirk. “What?”

“Oh nothing. Just enjoying the fond look on your face when you’re watching him.”

“What? Do not,” Louis scowls.

“Keep telling yourself that, mate,” Liam grins.

Liam and Louis join in on the fun. They blow bubbles, they pick flowers, they set up a mismatched croquet set. Louis gets tasked with bringing back stuffed animals for a tea party. There isn’t much time for conversation what with entertaining the children, but Louis can’t recall an afternoon he’s had more fun.

Louis is telling Liam that he is returning to London tomorrow when they come back inside for a drink and find Julia on the phone, some distress evident in her tone. When she hangs up, she apologizes. “I’m so sorry. That was James. It turns out their director has resigned. They have a replacement though. Louis, you know him. Ben. Ben Winston.”

Louis doesn’t turn to look at Harry, but he can sense him stiffen beside him.

“Harry? Are you alright? You look poorly,” Julia asks, concern evident in her tone.

“Um, yes. I think I might be coming down with something. Perhaps I should go.”

Louis’ mind spins with the news about Ben as he walks them to the door. If only he had said something to James about him, warned him somehow as to what Ben is really like. He’d been afraid of saying too much, but now he knows he’s said too little. As they all say their goodbyes, Harry seems to not even hear them as he walks to the car deep in thought, his eyebrows furrowed.

As Louis watches Harry walk away without even a backwards glance, it hits him. This is the moment he knows. His heart thumps out an uneven rhythm, and he can’t seem to expel the air from his lungs properly. He is watching Harry walk out of his life just as he can finally see how well they fit together, how the absolute balance between them just works. He has seen how the chemistry between them can be explosive and yet they can also enjoy spending time together at a child’s teddy bear tea party. It seems so unfair that this time in Cheshire has taught him to appreciate the many facets of Harry and now he’s taking them away. They’ve made no plans to see each other again, and now Louis doesn’t know if he has the right to try to further involve Harry with a man who betrayed him.

At some point they’ll be faced with one another again in some setting or other, but it will never be under the pleasant circumstances of this weekend.

*

Louis goes to bed early. He’s checked his phone countless times for a text from Harry even though that doesn’t make sense. Harry has texted him all of one time, so why would he text him something now? As Louis crawls under the blankets his twitter notifications begin coming in. His heart hammers in his chest, but it’s not about Harry at least not directly.

Gemma has tweeted a photo of Louis sat cross legged on a blanket with Carey and her stuffed animals as she serves him tea. Louis hadn’t even known she’d taken a picture. The tweets says: _Thanks @julia_carey and @louis_tomlinson for the advice and the imaginary tea_

Louis checks the comments and his notifications. It doesn’t take long for Larry Stylinson to start trending again, but this time it just makes Louis’ heart sink.

*

Louis’ alarm rings quite early Monday morning as he has quite a drive back to London and intends to go straight to the office. He kisses Julia and the children goodbye, regretfully. He knows it will be some time before he sees them all again. He’ll have to make plans for an L.A. visit. Maybe when Ed makes a tour stop there.

He spends the drive trying not to think and instead blaring The Breakfast Show. Grimmy is a good distraction until Larry Stylinson gets mentioned.

“Ah, yes, Larry Stylinson. Am great mates with Larry actually. As I was directly involved with its creation on Twitter. You’re welcome citizens of the world. The ‘L’ and ‘inson’ portion of Larry Stylinson actually inspired my new footwear today. Don’t worry I’ll post a photo, but for those listening they are blue Vans to match my new friend’s eyes and the squiggle is quite shiny.”

Louis quickly switches the radio off.

When he gets into the office, it’s quite bustling with activity. People are understandably nervous, but so far everything has been running quite smoothly. Ed’s calm demeanor has done much to soothe Louis’ nerves about all the upcoming appearances. He heads immediately for Zayn’s office.

Louis swings the door wide open. “Zayn, stopping messing about on the phone we have to talk about James.”

Zayn purses his lips in annoyance. “I’m not messing about on my phone. I’m testing out Ed’s new app for his video. Thought maybe someone around here should know how to use it when it debuts tomorrow.”

Louis smiles sheepishly. “Oh. That’s alright then. Well, I need to talk with you. Everything went a bit wrong after I talked to you last.”

“What now?” Zayn sighs. 

“James hired Ben.”

Zayn looks up, surprised. “For what?”

“To direct his show.”

“Oh. Well, fuck.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Louis says as he slumps into a chair. “Should we have said something? Could we have prevented this somehow? Should we still say something?”

“Damn. I don’t know, Lou. I mean, is it right that we should interfere? If James has already hired him, I don’t see that we could say much of anything without outing Harry in the process. I mean, maybe Ben’s learned something from all this. Maybe this will be a new beginning for him.”

“Yeah, I kind of doubt that.”

“When did you find out about this?”

“At Julia’s yesterday. James called and she mentioned it to all of us.”

“Oh, so like Harry knows then?”

“Yes. He most certainly does,” Louis answers tersely.

“Didn’t take it so well then?”

“I guess.  I don’t know for sure. He didn’t even glance my way. Just left about as soon as Julia said it. Couldn’t get away from us fast enough.”

Zayn looks at him sympathetically. “Lou—“

“You know what? Now isn’t really the time, is it? We’re sort of in the thick of things here. I’ll just leave you with the app.” Louis swings the door back open, still looking back at Zayn. “Best someone know how to work the thing.”

He turns back to see Ben standing in the doorway. “Gah!”

Ben looks sheepish. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Ehm, it’s fine. Hi. We’re a bit busy round here today. Did you need something?”

A strange look crosses his face before a pleasant smile replaces it. “Actually, if I could just have a moment of your time Louis that would be great.”

Zayn frowns. “Lou is pretty busy today. He has a meeting in ten.”

Ben’s smile just grows larger. “Oh, I know! Only a moment then,” he says as he guides Louis out of Zayn’s office. Louis can’t believe this guy didn’t always give him the creeps. He steps away more quickly to release Ben’s hand off his back.

As they reach Louis’ office he retreats behind his desk to put more space between them, but Ben doesn’t sit and stands as close to the desk as possible, looming over it. “Thanks for seeing me, Louis. I know I don’t have an appointment, but we’re friends, aren’t we? Have you heard about my new job? I’m quite looking forward to it even though it will mean I’ll have to leave London. I’ll quite miss all of you here.” He pauses for reciprocation.

Louis says nothing.

“Ahem, anyway, I have a few weeks before I leave for L.A. I know you’re so extremely busy around here. I thought maybe I could help out a bit. Maybe advise you on a few things. I’ve been in the business awhile. I could be helpful like that. Help make decisions and such. Just between us, I’m in a bit of a spot right now. Just need enough to get by for a bit.”

Louis looks at him incredulously. Is this arsehole actually asking him for money? “You know, Ben. I think we’re good here. I don’t think I need your help to make decisions about my label.” He ignores the bit about money.

Ben mouth presses into a line. “Well, I just thought I’d offer my expertise. Let me know if you change your mind.” His face transforms into a smile.

“Yes, well, I need to get to a meeting now. Congrats on the new job then.” Louis holds the door open for Ben to pass through first. How did he ever miss what a snake this man is? It just makes him feel foolish all over again. Clearly Ben’s obsequiousness had appealed to his vanity.

*

Louis doesn’t expect for Ben to turn up two days later.

They’re quite occupied at 78. Ed’s single is out, the video has over twenty million views on the Vevo 24 hour chart, he’s been incredible in his performances, Live Lounge is tomorrow, they’re announcing more tour dates. Louis is busy. He’s actually pretty happy to be this busy and not have to think about anything else or make any decisions about his own life. Not particularly in the mood to see some leech who won’t leave him alone.

He sees Ben as he tries to catch Niall in his office. “Sorry, mate, but I’m a bit in the weeds to be going to get a bite.”

“Well, you have to eat, Niall. Come on, it’s on me. Let’s go talk Louis into joining us.”

Louis interrupts them from the doorway. “There’s no way in hell we have time for that. I’ll order something in. Did you confirm the L.A. dates yet?”

“No, haven’t gotten that far, Lou. I’ll get on it next,” Niall answers.

“You two are hard to convince to have a meal,” Ben snorts. “Even worse than Harry.”

Louis freezes. “Harry? You saw Harry?”

“Well, yes we had dinner, but I didn’t really mean to bring him into this. Are you sure you two won’t come to eat? I was hoping to celebrate a bit.”

“Right, your new job. Congrats on that, mate,” Niall pipes in.

“Oh, actually I don’t know that I’m going to take the job after all. Turns out I’ve come into some money, so I don’t know that I want to leave London again so soon.”

Louis mind spins. Why is Harry having dinner with Ben? Where did Ben’s money come from? Is he blackmailing Harry again? Fuck. He doesn’t have time for this right now.

*

When Louis finally makes it to his bed that night, he lays awake wondering what is really happening between Ben and Harry. He reasons with himself for ten minutes before deciding that a text message won’t wake someone up if they’re asleep. So either he’ll get a response now or it will be there when he wakes up.

He grabs his phone and texts Liam telling him about Ben’s slip up and asking him why Harry would go to dinner with Ben. He can see the dots blinking indicating Liam’s replying. Louis chews a finger nail as he watches, waiting.

                _well he def wasn’t thrilled about it, but Ben needs money r n_

_Did Harry give him money again? Is Ben blackmailing him again?_

_yes, but it wasn’t because of the blackmail. Harry paid him money to not take the job with James. I guess I assumed you knew all this? Ben doesn’t know he won’t be able to blackmail Harry for much longer. You know once Harry comes out and all_

_HES COMING OUT??_

_Yep, guess I thought you knew that part too, lou. I assume it’s because of you ?? I mean, I think he feels like its his fault james doesn’t know about the real Ben. But I figured the money mostly had to do with you too_

_What does the money have to do with me?_

_I think Harry doesn’t like that your keeping his secrets has hurt your friend_

_Okay. Thanks for talking to me Liam_

_Youre welcome : )_

Well, the joke’s on him if he thought he would sleep better after receiving some answers. Never would he have suspected Harry to have gone this far. He can’t even imagine how much money he would have to have given Ben to give up the job. Honestly, Louis feels a little foolish he didn’t think of it first when Ben came sniffing around for money. If Harry is coming out, he had no need to meet with Ben at all. It’s painful to imagine Harry meeting with and having to bribe a man he always hopes to avoid. He finds he can’t release the thought that Harry’s done this for him, but the next moment he’s sure of its impossibility. Why would he commit such a gesture for a man who’d rejected him? And again put his money in the hands of a person he despises more than any other? One of Liam’s theories does make sense though. Harry truly feels he was wrong to let his own secrets harm another person. Perhaps, some small part of Harry still held some fondness towards him. It was quite awful to know how much he now owes Harry and for James to be in the dark and not even know what he owes to Harry. Louis regrets every sassy word he’s spoken to Harry over the last several months. He lets himself think on the knowledge that Harry has decided to come out. He wishes so heartily that he’d never thrown that in Harry’s face. It wasn’t fair to say that when at the time he’d had no intention of beginning anything with him. And now to know he was going to do this without a record contract even in place and possibly putting his career on the line, well, he can’t help but be terribly proud. A mix of emotions runs through him to know that Liam considered much of this to be Louis’ doing. It brings him both hope and pleasure along with regret that Liam remains so sure of this.

*

Fuck. Louis is so fucking tired. He does not have time to be spending his nights tossing and turning and wondering about Harry Styles. He rubs his face with his hands and forces himself to climb out of bed. He heads straight to the kitchen for tea before he can even think about a shower and facing the day. He finally wakes up enough as the spray hits his face to remember what’s happening today.

He smiles in anticipation. Back when he and Ed were writing the first song for the album, they dreamed up a fan contest concert. And tonight it is finally coming to fruition. Louis can hardly wait to see the fans as they experience seeing Ed in such an intimate performance. Smaller venues had always made him more nervous when he was performing. When you can actually see your audience, it just adds to the pressure. He honestly can’t imagine how Ed goes out there on his own on stage. Louis has always gone on stage with three of his friends and a backing band. But with Ed, it’s always just him and the music.

By the time Louis arrives at the office he has managed to put Harry out of his thoughts. He checks a few things off his list and begins answering emails when it all goes to shit. There’s a forwarded email from Luke with Ed’s guest list for tonight. The list isn’t long, which is what makes the name he doesn’t expect to see so obvious. Right there, beneath the names of Ed’s mom and dad and brother is Liam Payne. Louis slams the laptop closed as though it could make the name disappear. He doesn’t even stop to think. Just heads straight for Zayn’s office. The door is ajar and Louis kicks it open wider and then kicks it shut behind him.

“What now?” Zayn asks. “I don’t have time for your drama right now, Lou.”

“Fine. Do you have time for your own drama then?”

Zayn narrows his eyes. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Have you seen who is on Ed’s list for tonight?”

“No, why? He never invites anyone to these things. It’ll just be his brother and mom or summat. What’s he done? And what does it have to do with—oh.” Zayn’s face pales. “Who is on the list, Louis?”

“Ehm. Well, his brother and mom are definitely on there. But so is Liam.”

Louis can see Zayn struggle to mask his emotions. “Okay, well, you don’t have to look at me like that. I didn’t know he was back in London, but I’m fine. It’s fine. He can go wherever he pleases and be friends with whomever he wants. Just because he doesn’t want to be my friend doesn’t mean he isn’t free to be Ed’s friend.”

“Right. Fine. Okay. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Leave it alone, Lou.”

Louis sees himself out. He knows Zayn’s not fine. Anyone who says, I’m fine. It’s fine, is not fine. He sighs and gets back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters left! I just went through and marked out the last three chapters. Thanks for the comments so far and for the kudos, obviously! This is my first fic, so I've been nervous AF about it. I had to talk myself down the other day from making my beta approve one sentence I added after she'd already looked at that chapter for me. Go ahead and feel sorry for her. hehe


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I turned the car on today, 'Dangerous Woman' was already playing on the radio. Update: Still haunting/taunting me.

Most of 78 has been at the venue since sound check earlier in the day. It’s nearing show time when Louis and Zayn peer out from backstage again to see the crowd. Louis scans the box seats for Ed’s guests to see if he can spot Liam when his eyes instead find Harry staring back at him. He’s pretty sure his heart stops beating.

Zayn puts his arm around Louis’ shoulder and steers him backstage. “Well, fuck man. I thought it was bad enough Liam was coming. Guess we can be uncomfortable together.”

“I thought you were fine.”

Zayn snorts. “Sure. About as fine as you are.”

Niall rounds the corner as they make their way back to Ed’s dressing room. “Hey hey! Did ya’ see who’s here? Looks like we got another shot with Payno, eh? We can charm the pants off him this time. Sure we’ll get the chance at Ed’s after this. Hopefully, Harry don’t blow it for us, huh?” With a cuff on the shoulder Niall spins around and is off again.

Louis has no idea what to think about Harry and Liam coming to the show, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t desperate to know why they’d come. He can’t shake the notion that maybe, just maybe Harry is here for him.

It’s going to be a long night.

*

The concert is phenomenal. Ed absolutely smashes it. Louis is pleased they’ve recorded the footage even if they don’t know what they’re doing with it yet, and now a different type of nerves have kicked in. Uneasiness fairly radiates off of Louis and Zayn as they head with Niall to Ed’s place for the after party. Louis’ uneasiness only increases as he realizes there probably won’t be many people here. Probably pretty casual as Ed’s parties usually are except for maybe that one time he’d decorated the place in One Direction merch.

Louis has no idea what to expect from Harry or Liam for that matter, but he determines the only way to find out is to see how they behave. He gives Zayn’s hand a quick squeeze as Zayn looks like he’s about to vomit. Zayn manages a weak smile before Niall pounds on the door. They congratulate Ed on the spectacular performance and Ed leads the way into the kitchen for drinks. Zayn pours two shots and hands one to Louis. “Pretty sure we need these.” He’s not wrong.

They tentatively make their way towards the sounds of voices. As they enter the room Louis can see Niall is already talking to Liam and Harry and is waving them over. As they approach Louis chances a glance at Harry. He has a serious look on his face that reminds Louis of the Harry he knew before Cheshire. Liam looks both radiantly happy and horribly mortified. Louis didn’t even know such a look was possible, but there it is on Liam’s face.

In the slight lull between Niall’s chattering, Harry manages to speak. “How are Julia and the children?”

Louis startles. “Oh, ehm. Fine. Yes, back in the states now.”

“I’m glad they’re well,” Harry says gravely.

Niall chatters on and Louis wishes himself anywhere but here.  How had he ever convinced himself that Harry could be here for him? He feels like a fool for being so disappointed and so angry with himself for being this way. God, why has Harry even come?

Okay, he’s going to pull himself together. “How is Gemma?”

“She’s doing fine, good.”

Well, that went well.

Somehow Niall has arrived on the topic of Ben because of course he has. Why wouldn’t he bring up the one fucking topic sure to make Louis want to run screaming from the room? “Our mate Ben’s been around. Has a new job with James Corden, ya know. Or doesn’t? He was by the other day and seemed like he wasn’t sure he was takin’ it now. Don’t know why not. Seems like a great gig to me. Guess he’s come into some money, so he’s thinkin’ he don’t want to leave London so quick, I suppose.”

Louis is in such extreme misery at this point he’s forced to speak up. Zayn hasn’t spoken a word the entire time they’ve stood here. “Liam, have you returned to London for a while then? Or is this just a visit?”

Liam glances away from Zayn’s face long enough to answer Louis. “Oh, yes, I think I’ll be here a bit. Not sure Cheshire was really helping my song writing as much as I thought it might,” he says with an embarrassed smile.

“Liam, mate! Good to hear! Hope you’ve been noticing how well Ed’s launch is going! This could be you, ya know!” Niall laughs loudly. “Come by anytime to see us! You can drop by the studio, too if ya want. Louis can meet ya there anytime ya like. Or drop by the office, talk to Zayn here.” He grins and thumps  
Zayn on the back, jolting Zayn back into the conversation.

Louis is going to kill Niall. Justifiable homicide, they’ll call it. He excuses himself to get a drink. His new life goal is to never again lay eyes on Harry or Liam after this night, but when he returns to the room, a drink in hand, his eyes find Zayn and Liam speaking together alone. Liam looks as though he’s won the lottery to just be in Zayn’s presence. Zayn looks pleased, if a bit more reserved than he was previously with Liam. Louis leans back against the wall and watches them with a smile on his face. Maybe they actually have a second chance to make things right this time.

Zayn disengages himself and walks back over to Louis.

“Well now that we’ve met up again, you know me and Liam, I’ll be fine. I think we’ve proved we can be comfortable with one another just as professional acquaintances. If we end up signing him, it will all be fine.”

Louis laughs. “Right. You both seem totally indifferent to each other.”

“What? I promise, I’m completely fine. Surely, you can’t believe I’m in any danger now of thinking of Liam in any way other than professionally.”

“I think you are in danger of making Liam fall in love with you as much as ever.”

Zayn blushes and walks off to find a drink.

Louis finds Ed and they discuss how well the show went and how happy the fans were. They’re talking about the tour when Louis sees Liam and Harry reenter the room. He can see Liam scanning the room until his eyes alight upon Zayn across the way, messing with the play list. Zayn looks up and sees him and smiles. That seems to have determined something as Liam immediately heads over to his side. Louis feels a sense of triumph and looks to Harry to see what his reaction is to this. He seems to be looking at them without expression, but then Louis sees Liam’s eyes dart to Harry’s with a look of hope and fear. And he sees Harry return the expression with a subtle smile and nod. Liam’s expression relaxes and he refocuses his attention on Zayn. “They look quite happy.” Louis startles as Ed speaks.

“Yeah. I guess they do.” He looks at Ed who has a smug look on his face. “Wait. Have you done this on purpose? Ed! You dodgy git!”

“Not the only thing I did on purpose.” Ed gives him a giant wet smooch on the cheek that Louis is forced to wipe off with a look of disgust. Ed laughs and wanders off to fix the play list Zayn’s been changing.

Louis looks around for Harry, thinking about trying to talk to him again. He sees him talking to Ed’s brother. They’re writing something on a piece of paper and look preoccupied, looks like they’re talking music. He’s deciding whether to interrupt when he gets intercepted by most of 78 all come to ply him with alcohol and to dance. He catches Harry’s eye a couple of times, and once Harry stands almost close enough to talk with him, but then Luke drags him back to the throng to dance and Harry walks away to another part of the room. Louis can’t take his eyes off of him. He’s wearing another damn floral shirt, probably Gucci. Louis really wishes he could go tease him about it and watch his nose scrunch up into that look he does when he’s trying not to laugh. He’s jealous of every person Harry talks with. Oh god, this is bad. Louis is so angry with himself for even thinking this way. As though Harry whom he’s already rejected once would purposely come back for more. He doesn’t even really blame him. He heads back for yet another drink. When he turns around, he finds Harry has entered the kitchen as well.

“Hi,” Louis says with a squeak his cup splashing over a bit.

“Hi.” Harry’s deep voice just makes him feel even more stupid for squeaking.

“So is Gemma still in Cheshire then?” Louis manages to get out a question without too much difficulty.

“Yes. I think she’s thinking of staying for another week or two yet,” Harry says as he pours himself a glass of champagne.

“Even though you’re not there?”

“She still has a lot of friends there to visit. And of course, Catherine.”

“Oh. Right. Of course.”

They spend a few moments feeling silly as neither one says anything before Niall comes to drag Louis away to settle an argument he’s having with Zayn about the music.

Niall has a friendly arm around Louis’ shoulder to steer him away. “Okay, so I’m not really having an argument with Zayn. As if having one is even possible with him. He’d just stomp away and I’d end up apologizing. No, I rescued you from Harry so you can help me plan something.”

“I don’t know why you thought I’d want any part of whatever scheme you’re planning, Niall.”

“Oh, shut yer mouth. I’ve got Liam waiting for me out on the balcony outside Ed’s bedroom. Now, we just need to get Zayn there. That’s where you come in. He’ll definitely suspect something’s up if I try to get him there. So you go do it!”

Niall unsubtly shoves Louis next to Zayn. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Want a smoke?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s go out to Ed’s balcony. This way.”

Louis looks towards Niall who is grinning with two big thumbs up next to his face. Louis rolls his eyes. He holds the door open for Zayn. “After you, darling.”

Zayn has begun to suspect something based on the look on his face, so Louis shoves him into the room and slams the door loudly behind him. He feels Zayn jiggle the door knob as Louis holds it closed. And then, he can hear some muffled conversation, which must be Liam. The door knob stops jiggling, so Louis feels his job here is done. After half an hour he checks the room again, but it seems the two of them have disappeared. Well, well, well.

*

Louis heads home after finding Harry has gone. His stomach twists that whatever it was between them is over. They weren’t really even anything, so why does it hurt like this? To add to the pain a bit, he usually ends his night heading out with Zayn. It feels weird to be going home from a party like this without him, but he is so genuinely happy that Zayn and Liam are probably right now making up for lost time. Ew. Best not to think too much on that.

He spends much of the next day working from home. Sending emails, checking tour dates, finalizing promo. He doesn’t hear from Zayn. He decides to give him a day before harassing him for details. Zayn floating into Louis’ office the next day in the clothes he wore two nights ago says it all really.

“It’s too much,” Zayn says, a look of bliss crossing his face. “I don’t deserve him, but I don’t care anymore. I’m so happy and I wish everyone were as happy as me today!”

“Ooookay. Who are you again? You bear a striking resemblance to my best friend. The one who doesn’t gush over—well, anything really.”

“Your cynicism can’t touch me today, Lou.”

“Well, today I’m glad it can’t. You can leave out all the sex details, but anything else you care to share?”

“Well, we’ve worked out our misunderstandings. And we’ve vowed to be completely open with one another, so we don’t make these same mistakes again. He says he already knew he was in love with me when he left for Cheshire, and that the only reason he stayed away was because he was sure I didn’t return his feelings. He says he spent the whole time trying to figure out how to be around me because he has always been serious about signing with us.  He just wasn’t sure if he could handle working with me whilst having unrequited feelings.”

“Well, that was stupid of him, but at least it was because he’s a bit modest.”

This launches a long list of Liam’s virtues until Zayn finally says, “Well, I should probably go talk to Niall. He’ll be delighted I’m sure. Best not keep him in suspense a moment longer.” As Zayn reaches the door he turns around and looks at Louis. “Lou?”

“Yes?”

“Just don’t give up, okay? If you’ve changed your mind about Harry, I think you should tell him. Don’t be like me and keep it all to yourself.”

*

Every day that passes brings Louis less and less hope that Harry still cares for him. Liam comes by a few times to pick up Zayn for lunch or to speak with Niall about logistics or with Louis to discuss some of the songs he’s working on. But he never breathes a word about Harry. It’s driving him mad. Louis’ new hobbies suddenly include thinking about Harry, googling Harry Styles, and reliving every moment they’ve spent together. Mentally healthy things like that.

Louis is working on some paper work for the lawyers to look over before he gives them to Liam. He wants Liam signed yesterday, so he really wants these done and to Liam for his lawyers to look at them before he can sign. Well, they’re probably Harry’s lawyers. Harry. He wonders what Harry is doing today. And what he’s wearing. And who he’s with. He wills himself to stop thinking about Harry and do his damn job.

He’s just managed to get back to it, when he hears some commotion going on outside his office. He can hear a commanding voice speaking that he can’t quite place. Curious, he walks out to see what the fuss is. It’s Simon Cowell of all people. What the fuck is he doing here?

Simon strides over to Louis as soon as he sees he’s entered the area. “Hello, Louis. These are some small offices here.”

“Well, we’re not exactly SYCO, yet are we?”

“These aren’t particularly convenient to a studio that I’m aware of.”

“Well, not particularly no. We make do though.” Louis is completely mystified as to why Simon Cowell has come to 78 Records. “Would you like something to drink? Water, tea?”

“No.”

Well, okay then.

“I take it your office is down that hall?”

“Yes. Would you like a word then?”

“Yes. A short one. My car’s waiting.”

Simon starts walking down the hallway until he finds a door with Louis’ name on it. Louis opens the door and welcomes him to a chair as he sits in his own. “I assume you know why I’m here.”

Bewildered, Louis answers, “No, I actually have no idea why you’ve come.”

Simon’s demeanor changes from haughty to angry. “You should know better than to be flippant with me. Your false surprise does you no favors as I’m known for my straightforwardness. I’ve recently become aware through gossip that Harry means to come out because of his relationship with you. I know this can’t possibly be true, and I wouldn’t insult him by asking of the truth of it. So I immediately made the decision to speak with you to tell you my thoughts on the matter.”

Louis listens to this in complete amazement. “If you believed it wasn’t possible why did you bother coming to speak with me about it?”

“I came so that you could outright deny such a thing is happening.”

“You coming to see me will rather confirm the gossip to people if people are really talking about this.”

Simon is indignant. “So you’re going to continue to pretend you know nothing of this then? When clearly you’re the one spreading these rumors.”

“I can definitively say that I’ve never said anything of the sort to anyone.”

“So then, you’re agreeing the whole thing is untrue?”

“I can’t say that for sure, I suppose.”

“This is outrageous. I insist you be truthful with me. Has Harry told you he means to come out to be in a relationship with you?”

“You’ve said that’s impossible.”

“Well, it most certainly should be if he hasn’t completely lost his mind. But your persuasions and seductions may have turned his head and made him forget what he owes his career. You may have manipulated him into this.”

“Well, if I have, wouldn’t I be the last person to admit it?”

Simon rises from his chair. “Do you know who you’re dealing with here, Tomlinson? I am not used to people speaking to me in this manner. I’m the most important person for Harry’s career and future, and I am justified in knowing all his affairs.”

“Well, you’re not justified in knowing all of mine, and the way you’re speaking to me isn’t making me want to tell you anything further.”

“Let me be clear. This isn’t going to happen. Harry is not going to come out. And he’s certainly not going to be with you at the risk of his career. What do you have to say to that?”

“Only that if you’re so sure he’s not coming out, then you have no reason to believe he’s going to begin a relationship with me.”

“You obviously already have knowledge of Harry’s sexuality. We’ve worked very hard to give Harry every opportunity available to advance his career, including helping him when he was being blackmailed. He owes it to himself and to the company to sign with us again and continue on his path to success. Coming out derails all the plans we’ve had in place for years.”

“Do you know how archaic and ridiculous you sound? Do you know what year it is? Sam Smith doesn’t seem to have a problem selling records. And by the way, why the hell would I care about your plans for Harry and his career? You know what Simon? You did what you could. You put a plan in place, but the plan has to be carried out by Harry. And he’s the one who gets to decide this. Not you, not me, not anyone but him. And if he decides that I’m the one he wants, why shouldn’t I decide to be with him?”

“Because it’s not what’s best for him and my company. It’s against everything he’s worked for, and if you choose to go against me, you can be sure no one associated with us will be cooperating with you and your little label.”

“Well, I don’t see as how associating with you does a damn thing for my label, but even if it did, being with Harry would seem to be worth quite a bit if it brought someone happiness.”

“I’m shocked by this, Tomlinson. That you would belittle any of the exposure I’ve given you just by being associated with me or my charities. I’m not used to being so disappointed by a professional conversation.”

“Not sure what that has to do with me, mate. Should I apologize for bringing media attention and money to your charities? And this is by far the least professional conversation of my career.”

“I’ve heard enough. Just tell me, are you in a relationship with Harry?”

“No.”

Simon smiles. “And do you agree to not begin one with him?”

“I absolutely do not make that promise.”

Simon’s face reddens in anger. “I’m so extremely disappointed by this. I expected to find you much more realistic and reasonable. I won’t be leaving until you assure me that you won’t be ruining Harry.”

“Well, I certainly won’t be ever giving you that assurance. I’m not one to be intimidated. Even if I gave you my assurances I wouldn’t start a relationship with Harry, it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t still choose to come out. Your arguments against this have been not been truly in Harry’s best interests and weak at best to boot. You’ve completely misjudged me if you thought any of this would be convincing to me. I don’t know that Harry would approve of your interference in his life, but you definitely have no right to interfere in mine. So kindly fuck off.”

“I know all about your little friendship with Winston. As though Harry should have to constantly deal with your association with him and your friends more permanent association with him. Do you think Harry should have to deal with seeing his face constantly?”

“You don’t know a damn thing about that clearly. So I think you’ve insulted me enough for one day. Go ahead and see yourself out.”

“So you have no care for his career and everything he’s worked so hard for?”

“I really have nothing left to say to you.”

“You’re determined to make him come out then?”

“I have said nothing like that if you were listening at all. I’m only determined to make up my own mind about whatever happens to benefit my own happiness and Harry’s happiness without any regards to you or any other person with no connection to me.”

“I’m most seriously displeased with you. And I wish you no luck with convincing Harry to ruin himself.” Simon opens the door to leave the office as Louis rolls his eyes.

Simon sidesteps Niall as he walks through the hallway without acknowledging him. “What was he on about? Ah! Coming to congratulate us about Ed, I s’pose! Nice of ‘em.  He say anything in particular?”

“Ehm. No. Not really. Let’s take a look at the schedule for today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pride & Prejudice people: I had to write so many parties! wtf. I actually cut some parties from the plot of P&P. Jane Austen liked the party scene. Confirmed.


	13. Chapter 13

Louis tries. He really tries to not think about Harry, but Simon’s visit this morning has stirred up all kinds of odd thoughts. Simon personally came to his office just to track down the truth about a rumor and gain reassurance it wasn’t true. Where did the rumor even come from? The Larry Stylinson stuff had quieted down as he and Harry hadn’t been spotted together lately. There were some mentions about Harry going to Ed’s concert, but that was about it. Were people really talking about it again? He hasn’t had time to check Twitter today though.

Simon’s interference leads him to thoughts about what Simon’s next move will be. Will he now ask Harry about it? This obviously wasn’t the first time Louis had heard Harry wanted to come out. Liam had seemed quite certain about it, but just because Louis sees Simon’s arguments as ridiculous and archaic doesn’t mean Harry will. Surely, Harry thinks better of Simon than Louis does. After all, he had helped Harry become extremely successful. If Harry has been wavering on what to do, perhaps he’ll decide it’s not worth coming out and risking his career. Louis has expected that their paths would cross more and more because of Liam, but if Harry stays away even though Liam is signing with 78, then Louis will have to assume Harry regrets his past feelings for him. He tries to forget Zayn’s advice about telling Harry how he feels, but perhaps it’s unfair to withhold this from Harry. Damn, he’ll have to give this some serious thought.

Zayn is off with Liam somewhere, but Liam is supposed to be meeting Louis at the studio in a few hours. He really wants to lay all his problems at Zayn’s door and have him fix them. He’s not sure when Zayn turned into an agony aunt for him. He sighs loudly and decides to go to lunch with Niall and Luke.

The first thing Niall wants to talk about is Harry. Of course. “So how’re ya feeling ‘bout Grimmy talking about ya?”

“What? What are you on about?”

“Ya been under a rock all morning? Larry Stylinson s’all over twitter right now. I guess on the Morning Show today Grimmy mentioned Harry was working on some new songs. Called ‘em a whole lot of sappy, unrequited love songs.  Someone called in and asked if the songs were about Larry, and Nick said he’d post about it on Instagram.”

“Oh god.” Well, this answers why Simon felt the urgent need to meet with him.

“Yeah, sorry mate, but he posted a video of himself wigglin’ his eyebrows and winking.”

Louis lays his head on the table.

Niall pats Louis on the head. “A lot of angry Harry fans on Twitter asking you who the hell you think you are to be breakin’ Harry’s heart. Don’t worry though. The Louis Tomlinson Defense Squad on Twitter seems to be taking care of it.”

Luke laughs. “Ain’t that hilarious though? Congrats, Louis! Twitter and Nick Grimshaw are marrying you off to Harry Styles of all people! You’d think Grimshaw would know better than to start shit like this. As if you’d date someone like Harry anyway or he’d date someone like you.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“What? Don’t you think it’s funny? You’ve spent years loathing the man. And then he starts turning up being a pretentious twat and derailing us with Liam at every turn. Now all of a sudden, you two are a thing and he’s coming out? Not bloody likely,” Luke says with a snort.

Louis sits up, trying to control his reactions.  Has Luke truly not sensed anything between them? Is he blind to it or has Louis been fooling himself? He feels embarrassment creep up the back of his neck. What if Harry is hearing all these rumors with disgust now? And Harry’s writing love songs? This is all just too much information. He stands up dazed.

“You okay, Lou?”

“No. I have to go.”

Niall looks up. “Right. Yer meetin’ with Liam soon?”

“Right. Liam. Right.”

Louis catches a taxi and continues in a fog up into the studio. One of the producers he wants Liam to meet is already there as well as the recording engineer, so he tries to chat. But he’s too preoccupied to add much to the conversation.

When the door opens, a draft of wind blows in with Liam. “Sorry, I’m a bit late.” Louis looks up from where’s he’s seated and sees Liam is not alone. Standing behind Liam is Harry looking absurdly beautiful. His soft curls framing his face, too many buttons undone on a black shirt with his last name embroidered on it, the cross that hangs down and never leaves his neck. Louis remembers how that cross felt as it touched his skin in brief moments as Harry had moved inside him. A shiver runs down his spine.

There’s talking in the room, but Louis hears none of it. It all blends together into a blur of sound. He’s staring. He tries to stop, but he can’t seem to control it. He’s spent two weeks since Ed’s fan concert wondering about him. He catalogues every detail as though he might have to store each one up. But when he meets Harry’s eyes and sees them boring into his, he drops his own gaze to the floor not sure of what to say. He feels like it’s his chance to say something, but his heart has dropped into his stomach, and he can’t think properly. As he stares down at the floor tiles, the toes of some well-worn brown suede boots enter his line of vision. He forces his eyes upward as best he can until he finally reaches Harry’s lips. He watches Harry’s teeth sink into the bottom one. He’s so transfixed he almost doesn’t hear Harry’s voice at first.

“—a walk if you’d like.”

“What?”

Harry clears his throat. Is he nervous? “We could take a walk.  If you would like to take one that is. With me.”

An awkward moment passes as Louis’ brain catches up. “Yes!” He blurts out. “I mean, yes. Sure. I could use a walk.”

They walk two, then three blocks in silence. Harry seems to be leading them somewhere though. He walks purposefully towards a smallish park that Louis has never taken any notice of. “I didn’t know this was here,” he says, breaking the silence.

“Yes. I’ve recorded in this studio before. Sometimes I’d just need a break, so I’d come here.”

“Oh. That’s…nice. It’s lovely here.” Louis cranes his neck to look at the tops of the thick grove of trees to the left of the path.

He glances back at Harry and gears himself up for a moment before he says, “I need to thank you for something.”

Harry looks surprised, but before he can speak, Louis continues. “I know what you did to help James, and I can’t help but thank you for what you’ve done. Ever since I’ve known what happened, I’ve wanted to tell you how grateful I am. If James knew, I wouldn’t be the only one to thank you.”

Harry’s eyebrows have furrowed together. “Did Liam tell you? I thought he could be trusted with this. I’m sorry if it made you at all uncomfortable to know I’d done this.”

“Liam told me, but don’t blame him. Ben mentioned meeting with you, and I messaged Liam to find out why. Again, Harry, thank you so much.”

“Please. You don’t have to thank me on James’ behalf. Truly, he owes me nothing, but if you feel you have to thank me, you should know I’ve done this for you.  I only thought of you when I did it, so that I could ease your worries about someone so important to you.”

A beat passes. Louis is desperately afraid that at any moment Harry will ask him how Julia is or make small talk as though they were friendly acquaintances or say he’s done everything out of friendship. He needs to say something, anything.

Before he can think about what to say next, he blurts out, “Are you going to come out?”

Harry frowns. “Where did you hear that? No, don’t answer that. It doesn’t matter. Yes, I’m going to come out.”

“Oh.”

Harry laughs nervously and runs a hand through his hair. “Oh? That’s all I get?”

Louis blushes and tries to say something, but Harry stops him. “No, wait. Please. I have some long standing reasons why I’ve decided to do this. But the main reason I’m choosing to do this now is standing in front of me. Louis, my feelings haven’t changed, I still want to be with you, but one word from you and I’ll promise to leave you alone. I’ll never speak of it again.”

A fuzz of white noise buzzes through Louis’ head. He’s verging on passing out from the stress and now relief he feels about Harry’s confession. Not dramatic at all, Christ. He hears Harry talking, bits of it filtering through the static filling his head. “—I’m sorry—Even if you don’t—Still coming out—the Larry thing—awkward, sorry—“ He can see Harry growing more and more agitated before his brain finally cooperates. He throws himself into Harry’s arms, and the world narrows down to press of their lips. Harry’s hands move down Louis’ back and his tongue slides into Louis’ mouth as he lets a breathless sigh escape him. 

Louis isn’t sure how long they kiss in the park like teenagers. Five minutes? Ten? He can hardly believe there was ever a time he didn’t want this. He breaks the kiss to breathe and notices a bench nearby. He backs a dazed Harry into it and pushes him until he’s seated. Louis sits atop, straddling him. He suddenly realizes he’s kissing and now straddling Harry in the middle of the day in a park in central London. “This okay? Anyone could see us.”

“Yes! Okay! Don’t care!” Harry says emphatically as his lips search to find Louis’ again.

“Good.” Louis clasps Harry’s curls in his fist as he grinds down against him. Harry rockets off the bench, nearly knocking Louis to the ground. “Wha—“

“Come on.” Harry gruffly commands as he pulls Louis quickly back through the park, hailing a taxi as soon as they emerge back onto a sidewalk. Harry gives his address as they lean back against the seat.

Louis leans his head to one side and looks at Harry. He’s never seen anyone more beautiful. His hair has been disheveled by Louis’ hands, his lips red and a bit swollen. A look of utter joy diffused across his face.

“My god, you look radiant.”

Harry smiles at him, his dimples creasing his face. “I’m happy. The happiest I’ve ever been really.” A slight look of embarrassment crosses his face. “This is okay, isn’t it? That we’re going to mine. I didn’t really ask.”

“Oh, believe me. I don’t mind. Maybe even like you a little bossy.”

“Oh, really?” Harry’s eyes widen and darken in response. He slides his hand over Louis’ wrist and tightens his fingers around the delicate bones as he forcefully tugs Louis closer to him. “I’ll have to remember that,” Harry whispers in his ear. Louis shivers.

*

They crash into Harry’s house, still kissing. Harry slams the door behind him and presses Louis up against it as he reaches for Louis’ legs and wraps them around his waist. Louis whimpers in response, his dick hardening, as he tangles his fingers into Harry’s hair and pulls him into the kiss. Mint. He tastes mint on Harry’s tongue.

Harry pulls away from the door, cupping his large hands beneath Louis. Louis wraps his arms around his neck, pressing his nose just under Harry’s ear as Harry carries him up the flight of stairs. Louis takes Harry’s ear lobe between his teeth and Harry moans. “Christ, Lou. I don’t want to drop you.”

“So don’t,” Louis replies as he licks a stripe just beneath where his teeth had been.

“Fuck!” Harry groans and kicks his bedroom door open.

“You kick your doors a lot,” Louis states in a daze.

“Only when I’m carrying you to bed actually,” he says as he sits down on the bed so that Louis remains straddling him.

Louis pulls his shirt off over his head and throws it to the ground. Harry moans in appreciation at the sight of Louis’ chest, words and numbers inked across it. He doesn’t have much time to appreciate the sight as Louis draws Harry’s shirt over his head now, throwing that to the ground as well. He pushes Harry onto his back, grinding down as he licks across the years tattooed on his collarbones. Harry closes his eyes and throws his head back giving him better access. “I’ve been wanting to do that since the first time I saw these,” Louis grins. Harry’s eyes pop open in amazement, and he looks like he wants to say something. But Louis keeps grinning smugly as he grinds down again, feeling Harry already hard beneath him.  

Harry lets out a shout and says, “Off! Off! Now!” He flips Louis over, pinning him to the bed with his body and then quickly moving back so that he can frantically unzip Louis’ jeans and rip them down his legs. He gets stuck at Louis’ ankles and uses his foot to help pry them off. Louis laughs. “Hey mate, don’t rip my jeans.”

“Not your mate,” Harry growls as he strips his jeans from his body. “Don’t want to just be your friend.” Louis props himself up on his elbows, wide eyed, to watch Harry as he crawls up Louis’ body slowly until he reaches Louis’ pants. He presses his lips round Louis’ still clothed dick as his tongue flicks out to run against the underside. Louis makes a noise he’s not sure sounds human as he tries to buck his hips up, but Harry pins them to the bed with his hands, his long fingers pressing into his skin. Harry mouths and sucks through the damp cotton as Louis writhes on the bed. “Fuck, Harry. Please, please.”

Harry keeps his mouth close enough for Louis to feel the deep vibrations of his voice against him. “Please what, Louis? Tell me what you want.”

“I—I—stop.” Harry stills. Louis stumbles over his words. “Too fast. Don’t want it to be over so fast.”

“Oh. Uh, okay.” Harry sits up on his heels, dazed. “I can do that.” He thinks for a moment and a slow, wicked smile overtakes his face. “Yes. I can do that.”

Harry slowly peels Louis’ pants down his body and off. He stares at Louis’ dick for a moment before turning his attention to his ankles, pressing his lips to the small tattoos he finds there. “Maybe each one of these tattoos needs some attention,” he says as brushes his lips across each ankle. He moves up Louis’ body again, this time running his hands up Louis’ calves, caressing his thighs, watching Louis’ dick twitch as Harry’s thumbs press into his hip bones as he kisses another small tattoo on his thigh. Louis can feel Harry’s breath against his stomach as he slowly moves up his chest. Harry deliberately brushes lightly against Louis’ dick as he moves, hearing a strangled moan from Louis. Harry’s lips reach the words and numbers splashed across Louis’ chest and collarbones and he bites down as he reaches them. Louis’ fingers grasp his hair and hold his head there for a moment before he runs his hands down Harry’s broad back. When he reaches Harry’s black boxer briefs, he trails a finger along the top until he reaches the laurels he knows are branded above his hips. He pulls the briefs down releasing Harry’s dick and stretching it below him. Louis’ hands run inside the back of the briefs to palm at his bum before yanking them further down his thighs. At that Harry grasps Louis’ hands and brings them above his head, trapping them with one of his own large hands. “You’re going too fast,” Harry smirks as his free hand glides down one of Louis’ arms.

He quickly reaches for the lube and condom in his nightstand, slicking up his fingers as he opens Louis’ thighs and presses one carefully and slowly inside him. Louis tries to squirm but has little success. “Christ, Harry. Faster. More.”

“No, Lou. You wanted slow. I’m just giving you what you wanted.” Harry slides another long finger in and out in a slow, torturous rhythm. He watches Louis pant and moan as he slides his tongue across Louis’ nipple. Louis isn’t sure when his lungs stopped functioning properly. “Harry, please. I’m ready. I want you to enjoy it, too.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m enjoying myself,” he says as he adds a third finger, finally pressing against Louis’ prostate.

“Fuck! Harry, fuck!” Louis wails, finally freeing his hands from Harry’s hold and fisting the sheets beside him. Louis’ mind goes black. Thoughts cease to form.

Harry slides his fingers out as Louis protests with a groan. He takes a condom out, but Louis stills his hand wordlessly reaching for the condom before pushing Harry onto his back. “S’okay if I ride you?”

Harry chokes out a noise that Louis takes as agreement. Louis slides the condom over him and positions himself, thighs on either side of Harry. He looks down at Harry’s face, glistening with sweat and euphoria. Harry’s hair spread out wildly across the white pillowcase.

Harry stares back at him. “My god, you’re so beautiful. My, Louis,” Harry says in awe. With that, Louis sinks down.

Harry’s eyes squeeze shut with the effort he puts into not immediately bucking up into Louis before he’s ready. It’s Harry’s turn to fist the sheets in his hands as Louis twists down, taking him all the way in. Louis clenches around him as Harry rolls his hips up. Louis’ hand finds Harry’s shoulder to steady himself, and Harry fills his hands with Louis’ bum as Louis raises up a few inches and sinks back down. They find a rhythm as Louis twists down and Harry meets him halfway until Louis’ thighs begin to quiver. “Sorry, but I don’t think I can go slower now, Lou.” Harry pumps his hips up at a faster tempo as he wraps a hand around Louis’ cock, stroking him at the same pace. They come gasping each other’s names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter left! I already have notes back from my beta on it, so I should be able to fix it tonight and post tomorrow. Fook, now I'll have no excuse to keep procrastinating on writing another one. Thank you so much for the comments and kudos. It's been so lovely to talk to people about this, and I love talking P&P, too! xx


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Also, update on Dangerous Woman: it was on the radio five minutes after I started driving Perla (my car) today. Will it stop haunting me if I finally post the last chapter? Only time will tell.

Louis gazes at Harry as he lays sprawled on his back, eyes closed and nearly asleep. Louis brushes his fingers across the bird cage that lines his ribs and then carefully around each wing of the butterfly across his stomach. He thinks about continuing to trace every inked surface with his fingers that he hasn’t done with his mouth yet, but he has to wee something awful. He carefully climbs off the bed so as not to disturb Harry, but as he reaches the bathroom he hears the rustle of bedclothes behind him.  He swings his hips a bit more than necessary just in case Harry is watching him walk nude through his house. May as well show off his best assets.

Louis cleans himself quickly and grabs a flannel for Harry. He opens the door carefully so as not to disturb a possibly sleeping Harry, but instead his eyes are met with Harry sitting up in bed, his eyebrows knitted together as he’s waited for Louis to return.

“Harry?” Louis smiles softly. “Thought you were asleep.”

Harry doesn’t answer. His eyes widen as he stares unabashedly at Louis’ nude form as he walks back to the bed. “You okay?” Louis tries again.

“You’re not going to leave right now, are you?”

“Oh,” Louis’ face falls. “No, Harry. I won’t leave. Unless you want me to.”

“No! Please, no. Don’t want you to go.” Harry reaches out a hand and pulls Louis back onto the bed.

“Okay. I won’t then. Harry, fuck. I’m so sorry that that’s what I’ve left you thinking about, that I would just leave now. I’m not sure I even know how to explain how differently I feel about you now. I really owe you an explanation though.” Louis pauses. He realizes he’s said not really said anything yet. Harry confessed his feelings again, and all Louis had done was jump into his arms. Definitely room for misinterpretation based on their past. Louis’ hand is still clasped in Harry’s larger one. He traces the tattoos at his wrist before he looks up into his eyes.  “I see you now, Harry. And I didn’t before. I let myself be persuaded by grudges and false information. But now, it’s different.  I let myself see what a true friend you’ve been to Liam. I see your kindness and loyalty to your family and your friends and even me when I didn’t necessarily deserve it at the time. I mean, Gemma is so amazing. Kind and generous and driven and funny, and so you know, if _she_ thinks you’re an amazing person, must be true,” Louis grins.

Harry narrows his eyes. “Think I might be jealous.”

“No need, love. I’m pretty sold on her family in general.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, one of them in particular seems quite spectacular, as previously mentioned.” Louis tucks an errant curl behind Harry’s ear. Louis drops his hand and clears his throat. “I actually had begun to think you were maybe over me now though. The last time I saw you, you didn’t seem very interested in talking to me. What made you show up with Liam to the studio today?” He nervously brushes the fringe of hair falling in his eyes. But then he opens them widely in surprise before Harry can answer.  “Oh, fuck! We never came back! We left for a walk and never came back!” They look at each other, astonished, before they both burst out laughing.

Louis wipes the tears from his eyes and looks around for his jeans. “Maybe we should check our phones or something.”

“No, wait. Please.” Harry stills him with his hands. “I’m not over you, Lou. Don’t think I’ll ever be if I’m honest. And I want to tell you why I came today. I came to see you on purpose. I have Simon to thank for it, actually. He called a meeting the other day and told me what you’d said, proper furious that you wouldn’t promise to not see me. He wanted my promise instead. It gave me hope because if you had been firmly decided against me, I knew you would have had no trouble telling him you thought I was a complete prat.”

Louis groans and covers his face. “Of course I would. I had no trouble saying awful things straight to your face. How can you ever forgive me all that?”

“Nothing to forgive, Louis. You didn’t say anything before that wasn’t deserved. You may have arrived at some wrong conclusions about some things, but my behaviour towards your friends and you deserved to be called out.”

Louis shifts in the bed, restlessly. He’s not sure he really agrees with that anymore. “Well, let’s not argue who is more to blame then. Don’t think either of us are entirely blameless.”

“I can’t forgive myself so easily. The things I said, the things I did, my manners, my selfishness. I’ll never forget how you said if I’d been more kind and less selfish you may have spared me some pity when you rejected me. You can’t know how those words have tortured me.”

Louis hates remembering this. He was so unfair now that he knows more. “I honestly didn’t think you would give a thought to what I said.”

“Yes, I’m sure you thought me too arrogant to listen to anyone. And when you said that nothing could have induced you to be with me—“

Jesus. “Oh, god.  Please stop saying everything I said that night! Harry, it’s been a long time since I thought any of those things. And I promise you, I’ve been ashamed to remember I said them ever since.”

“My email. After, um, you know. Did it make you rethink what you thought about me? Did you believe any of it?” Harry looks up at him, hope crossing his face as he remembers.

Louis looks him in the eye. “Yes, I believed it. Eventually anyway. I had to think about it for a while before I was willing to consider how wrong I’d been. The more I read it and reread it and thought about it, the more I could see how unjust my opinions about you were.”

“I hope you’ve deleted it by now. I’m still glad I sent it, but I don’t want you reading it again. At the time I thought I was so calm and collected and writing only to defend myself against false accusations, but now I can see how bitter and resentful I was.”

“I’ll delete it if you want, but I promise that reading it again wouldn’t change my opinion of you now. Even though we both know my opinions can actually change from time to time. Who knew?” Louis laughs. “Maybe parts of the email were bitter, but let’s try to forget it. Your feelings when you wrote it and my feelings when I got it are so different now. Maybe we were a bit of a mess, but let’s remember the good things instead of the bad.”

“Sure, that’s because you can look back and see that your behaviour made sense given the information you had, even if it was false. What excuse do I have? No, Lou, it’s good for me to remember the painful things. I had my head turned by all the people I’d surrounded myself in this business. I have a great family and incredible friends and whilst I had good intentions most of the time, I carried on believing I was above it all. Do you know I haven’t made a new friend in years? My friends are all from before making it big. They’ve put up with my arrogance and my overbearing attitude because they knew me before it all blew up and gave me the benefit of the doubt. None of them ever stood up to me the way you did. I might still be that same person who doesn’t care about others who aren’t a part of his circle, if it wasn’t for you. You taught me some humility that’s for sure. I had no doubts you would want to be with me, but you showed me how little I’d done to try to please you, and you are a man worthy of being pursued.”

“You thought I already wanted to be with you?”

Harry’s chin drops as he shakes his head. “God, what will you think of me? Yes, I thought you were waiting, wishing for me to tell you I wanted you.”

Louis colours and clears his throat. “Oh. Ehm. Well, I didn’t mean to lead you on, but I can see how some of the things that happened might have made you think that. Er, the bathroom…and then, you know, I slept with you. So yeah, not entirely blameless, me. God, you must have really hated me after that.”

“No. Definitely not hate. I was upset. And angry. But eventually I channeled my anger into a more positive direction.”

Louis thinks for a moment and then remembers showing up outside Harry’s home in Cheshire. Louis lays back putting his arm over his eyes. “I’m afraid to ask what you thought when you found me at Catherine’s. You blamed me, I’m sure, for showing up practically in your backyard.”

“No, I didn’t. I was just surprised,” Harry insists.

“Well, you couldn’t have been more surprised than me that you didn’t just ignore me. After all I said to you, I didn’t expect any olive branches.”

“I was trying to show you that I was no longer resentful. I wanted your forgiveness. I wanted you to think better of me. I wanted you to see that I had taken what you said seriously and had worked to change things. I’m not sure when I began to hope for more than all that. Probably about ten minutes after I saw you in that sheer white shirt,” Harry says, waggling his eyebrows.

Louis slaps his arm. “We should probably call people about ditching them to have sex.”

“Well, I’ll text Liam and tell him we’re sorry we disappeared, and that we needed to talk and resolve our differences.”

Louis laughs. “Yeah, ok. That sounds better, I guess. I’ll text the same to the others.”

*

Louis doesn’t leave. They spend the afternoon talking and laughing. They reach out and touch each other and kiss just because they can now. Harry makes green smoothies, and Louis even tries one as they sit in his garden. He absolutely refuses to try the bullet coffee though thank you very much. Vile and a disgrace to all tea connoisseurs everywhere.

They while away the hours telling stories, learning the things they should know about each other. Where Louis went to primary, Harry’s assertion that orange is an undervalued colour, the many and varied ways to make Louis’ siblings laugh, how Harry’s mum hugs a little too tightly just as a warning, when Louis and his friends went to Barcelona and they thought they lost Niall in Parc Guell but he was actually just napping under a tree. Harry asks the stories of Louis’ tattoos. Louis watches the varying shades of green and hazel in Harry’s eyes as he tells him. Louis tells a story about Zayn’s terrible dance moves to make Harry laugh. After his laughter dies down a bit, he asks, “So were you at all surprised then, that Liam and Zayn seem to have worked things out between them?”

“Not really surprised, no. I felt pretty sure it would happen as soon as Liam returned to London.”

“Meaning you gave Liam permission,” Louis says, an eyebrow raised.

“I would not have called it giving him permission,” Harry states. “Before I left Cheshire, I confessed that I had maybe meddled more than he knew in his affairs and made some mistaken interpretations in particular when it came to Zayn. He was surprised that I hadn’t been completely objective. I told him I thought Zayn did in fact have feelings for him, and I knew he felt the same, and they should no doubt be together.”

Louis smiles at the persuasion. “I suppose that was all he needed to believe it then?”

“Yes. Liam is quite modest. He maybe relies too heavily on the opinions of those he trusts. Without my interference, they may well have figured things out sooner, so for that I apologized. He was angry with me for about two minutes until he began to think of returning to London to talk to Zayn, and then all was forgiven.”

They remember to check their phones again and see all the texts from Liam and Niall and Zayn wondering where they are and what’s happened.

Louis reads his aloud. “Well, Niall says he didn’t know we were allowed to just fuck off in the middle of the day, but that it was good to know for future reference.  And Zayn says he hopes I have a good excuse for why I left Liam alone with the producer and engineers, but that they all had a chat and Liam is very happy to start working.”

“Well, Liam says he had a great time meeting with everyone and he’s very excited. He also says good luck with Louis and about 20 emojis of hearts and rainbows and kisses.”

Louis frowns. “I think I like your friend better than mine.”

Harry laughs. “Well, what should we tell them then?”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think maybe we invite them to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate Liam’s signing and then spend the next 24 hours in my bed.”

Louis’ eyes widen. “Deal.” They both text quickly. Harry throws his phone to the floor and climbs on top of Louis as he tries to finish texting. Harry nuzzles into Louis neck, “Come on, hurry up, Lou.”

“I have more than one person to text—“ Harry begins sucking a bruise into his collarbone. Louis lets out a strangled noise. “Fuck it.” He throws his phone to the floor as he lays back to give Harry easier access to his neck.

*

They order in for dinner and spend the rest of the night in each other’s arms. There isn’t much talking even though Louis knows there’s more to be said. When he wakes up, he stares at the ceiling willing it to give him answers. He’s still a bit afraid if he’s honest. Even though it feels like something that took months to happen, it all feels sudden and fragile. Is this a relationship? They’ve admitted they want to be together. Harry says he’s coming out, and that seems like a fucking serious step to take. Does he want to come out as Louis’ boyfriend? They’ve said they have feelings for each other, but that’s different than saying you’re in love. He closes his eyes to let an idea seep through him. He’s in love with Harry. It feels like it’s radiating off of him in waves of light for everyone to see.

He knows they should talk, but instead he wakes Harry with warm, sleepy morning kisses before he takes him in his mouth.

He knows they should talk, but instead he pushes Harry into the shower and lets Harry wrap his long fingers around him and pump until he comes.

He knows they should talk, but instead they drink tea and eat Harry’s rabbit food.

He knows they should talk, but instead he pushes Harry back on the bed and slowly opens him up with his fingers until Harry is desperate for him and calling his name.

He knows they should talk, but he purposely takes up all the time for it, terrified to break the spell. Louis can see in Harry’s eyes that he’s wary, too, and he wishes he could take that cautiousness away. There’s no time for it now though. “Why don’t you go on ahead then?” Louis says an hour before they’re to meet for Liam’s celebratory dinner. “I’ve got to stop in the office for a bit, so I’ll meet you there.”

Harry’s eyes burn into him in that way he has, but Louis refuses to look. He steps up closer and raises up on his tip toes to kiss him good bye. Harry kisses him back, and he looks slightly less nervous.

Louis spends a good thirty minutes in his office doing absolutely no work, wishing he’s just said the fucking words.  What good is it knowing he’s in love with someone if they don’t know it? Just because Harry hasn’t said it doesn’t mean he isn’t. What is wrong with him that he actively avoided the entire conversation? He looks at the clock and realizes he’s going to be late to dinner. Nothing new there.

He’s the last to arrive, still in his borrowed clothes from Harry. It would take more than a second glance to realize the holes in the knees of these jeans are well below his own, the bottoms rolled up. The plain white tee shirt just a little too large, hanging off him a bit.

Everyone is already sitting around a long table, drinks in hand as he walks up and sees that the only seat open is next to Harry. Surely not a coincidence.  A few people notice him approaching and raise their drinks and turn in their seats. Harry turns to look up at him, a small happy smile on his face. Louis put that smile there. He grins back. He can hear people talking to him, but he can’t focus on anything but the look in Harry’s eyes. He wants to keep that look there forever, he thinks as he bends down and kisses him. The table has abruptly silenced. Louis keeps his grin as he looks up into the faces of their friends, mouths open and eyes big as saucers. “What?” he says with a shrug as he slides into the seat, his arm around Harry’s chair. Niall jumps up, “I knew it!” he screams as the table erupts in noises of amazement. Liam smiles so hard his eyes crease into slits with Zayn next to him with the smuggest look known to man written across his face.

Of course when the noise dies down there are questions. Many, many questions. “Listen, this night is supposed to be for Liam, so I’ll just say that Harry’s been wanting me arse since he first laid eyes on it.”

“Too much information,” Oli jokes.

“Kidding, kidding. Actually, it took a while for him to even notice me.”

Harry looks at him in astonishment. “What the fuck, Lou! I was already in love with you, and you still hated me!”

Louis’ jaw drops at this confession, his mind drawing a blank as to what to say in response.

Harry looks at him in panic. “Oh, shit. Ehm—I mean—I—you—oops.”

Louis grabs Harry’s hand and looks him in the eye with purpose. “Hi,” he smiles, his eyes twinkling.  “You know I love you, too, right?”

Harry lets out a weak, “Right,” before using his other hand to shield his eyes in embarrassment that he’s just done this in front of all their friends.

Niall lets out a whoop, “Oh me fuckin god! Did you two just say ya love each other fer the first time? Holy fuck, guys! Can’t believe we got to see that! Good thing I brought me selfie stick. Okay, pucker up you two, gonna take a pic of us all.”

*

Later as they lay in bed, Harry laying in Louis’ arms, he begins to think of the things they haven’t spoken of yet. The confessions in front of all their friends has given him the assurance he needs to say them. “How did you fall in love with me?” he asks, breathing into Harry’s curls. “I can sort of imagine it once you got going, but what could have induced you to begin?”

“No idea,” Harry smiles and turns in his arms to face Louis. “It all happened long ago for me. I was in deep well before I knew I’d started.”

“Well, I don’t remember you bring overly impressed with me in the beginning. I wouldn’t have called the way I spoke with you ideal for falling in love. I guess it’s safe to assume you like rude, pushy men. Is that why?”

“I admired your enthusiasm and energy.”

Louis laughs. “Fine, let’s settle on sassy and impertinent. You must have been sick of all the ones throwing themselves at your feet. I suppose I seemed interesting because I was so unlike them. I challenged you, and if you were an arsehole you would have hated me for it, but instead you just rose to it. There, I’ve saved you the trouble of explaining. Honestly, it makes sense when you think about it. I mean, you didn’t actually know anything good about me, but who thinks about that when they fall in love?”

“I object. What about when you showed up at my house in the middle of the night to rescue Zayn? Does that not count as something good?”

“Zayn is the best. Who wouldn’t have shown up to rescue him? But please, let’s pretend that’s significant. My honour is under your protection now, so you’ll have to exaggerate as much as possible. And in return I’ll tease you and mouth off as often as you like.”

“I like it when you mouth off,” Harry growls pushing him on to his back and climbing over him, pinning Louis to the bed with his hips. He kisses him deeply before Louis pushes his shoulders. Harry leans back from the kiss to look at him.

“Wait, wait!” Louis laughs. “I’m not done. One more question. Why didn’t you talk to me about any of this the night of Ed’s concert? Why did you talk to me as if you didn’t care?”

“Because you were quiet and subdued. You gave me no encouragement.”

“Oh. But I was embarrassed!”

“Well, so was I.”

“You could have tried to see me before with Liam.”

“If I’d felt less, I might have.”

“Humph,” Louis purses his lips in fun as they both sit up. “You have an answer for everything. And I can’t believe I’m actually admitting it. I wonder how long it would have taken you to say something if I hadn’t thanked you for helping James.”

“You wouldn’t have had to wait long. I was there at the studio to talk to you. Simon’s interference wiped away most of my doubts, and I was in no mood to wait any longer. I was there at the studio for you.”

“Well, Simon has been quite useful in the end. Sure he’ll be happy about that. But why did you come to Ed’s concert? Did you come just to be embarrassed or had you thought about talking to me more seriously then?”

“I told myself I was there to see if Zayn still seemed interested in Liam and to be there for moral support for Liam in case things didn’t go as he planned. But if I’m being honest, I was there to see you, to see if I had any chance of making you love me.”

Louis kisses him. “Was already in love with you by then.”

Harry stills. “Fuck. I want to just tell the whole world that we’re in love. But first, I should probably tell my mum.”

Louis laughs. “Yeah, me too. And I need to talk with Julia.”

“Right. Best talk to Gemma and Catherine, too.”

***

Low murmurs in the night cause Louis’ eyes to flutter open as his mind shrugs off the cobwebs of sleep to listen for the noise. He hears the soft noises again, but he realizes they’re coming from the boy in his arms who is whispering nonsense in his sleep. Louis smiles and files away this newfound knowledge about the boy he loves.  Louis strokes his curls gently, thoughtlessly, as he begins to drift back off to sleep. “Love you, Lou,” Harry sighs in his sleep. “Love you back,” Louis whispers.

***

      

 

                                                                                         

 **Notes** :

I would just like to say that this fic is actually 44,444 words. But these notes I’m tacking on here right now are ruining it. Just saying.

Here is the link to my tumblr post for this fic! Pretty please reblog it if you’re on tumblr and you liked it! Also, come talk to me whenever you'd like on there! 

Tumblr post:   [Just Hear This and Then I’ll Go](http://allwaswell16.tumblr.com/post/147700509881/just-hear-this-and-then-ill-go-by-allwaswell16)    (Also, [here ](http://nottooldforthisship.tumblr.com/post/146672875311/cause-its-my-business-god-as-my-witness-for)is a link to the lyrics edit from nottoooldforthisship which is also included in the tumblr post)

[softhie ](http://softhie.tumblr.com/)made me [this](http://softhie.tumblr.com/post/148102900900/just-hear-this-and-then-ill-go-by-allwaswell16) awesome moodboard for this fic, so check that out and reblog it! 

I’m also about to gush about [taggiecb ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/taggiecb/pseuds/taggiecb)in the notes below, but I wanted to tag her here, so you can go read her fics which are so incredibly good. Seriously, you should go read them if you haven’t. She’s writing three others right now because someone talked her into pinch hitting for like every exchange. I don’t know who would do such a thing. Oops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this as a WIP. I can’t believe anyone would do such a thing as to read a WIP from someone you’ve never heard of, you brave souls. I published this as a WIP because I could not motivate myself to edit it. The only reason this ever got edited is because of you reading it and commenting on it and sending me kudos. Also, thank you to anyone who actually read this at all! I love you! xx
> 
> Taggiecb, you are the reason this ever got written in the first place. I’m not nearly as good a beta for you as you are for me, but I’m so glad I found someone supportive. Writing fan fic with you is the most fun thing in the world. Cheers to being your evil twin! xx
> 
> I signed up to pinch hit for an exchange, so I am currently writing something. Hope you all like it! xx


End file.
